Blanket media coverage surrounded Sands’s death

Nearly every media outlet in the world had an opinion on Bobby Sands, the hunger strikes, the situation in the North and the British response. And most media were not on the side of Margaret Thatcher, writes Ryle Dwyer

THE DEATH of Bobby Sands received saturation media coverage in the US, on radio, TV and the front and editorial pages of newspapers across the country. It was reminiscent of the 1969-1972 period; only this time there was more analysis and commentary on the political situation.

The New York Times had been critical of British policy on the North before, but not with the vehemence shown following the death of Sands. “Mrs Thatcher has allowed the initiative to pass to a miniscule army of implacable nationalists,” it complained in an editorial. “By appearing unfeeling and unresponsive she and her Government are providing Bobby Sands with a deathbed gift — the crown of martyrdom.”