The Dublin City Ramblers - The Ballad of Bobby Sands (Ireland, 1981)

Irish hunger striker and Provisional IRA member Bobby Sands died 43 years ago today (depending on what time zone you're in), May 5th, at the age of 27. He and other Irish prisoners had undertaken a hunger strike to demand that their "Special Category Status" as political prisoners be restored. (England criminalized resistance to their centuries-old colonial rule of Ireland, but political prisoners did enjoy certain rights.) Dying 66 days into his strike, Sands was the first of ten Irish martyrs to give their lives in the 1981 hunger strike. A month before dying, Sands was elected as a British Minister of Parliament representing Fermanagh and South Tyrone Ulster. He got 10,000 more votes than Prime Minster Margaret Thatcher, and commanded a majority twice as large as the Iron Lady.

This song, written by Kevin Molloy of the Dublin City Ramblers and released the year of Sands' death, is one of many songs memorializing him.

[Excerpt]
"They tried to break your spirit
But no way could they succeed
The phoenix in your heart
They tried to quell
With their beatings degradation
All in vain to their frustration
For the more they tried
The more you would rebel, you'd rebel"