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Clive Ferguson looks at political reaction to the death of IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands MP and charts his involvement in the IRA, his convictions for terrorism and his success in the recent Fermanagh-South Tyrone by-election.

DUP leader Ian Paisley MP is reported as saying Sands could choose the timing of his death but IRA victims had no choice, while SDLP leader John Hume MP is said to believe that Sands’ death could have been avoided.

Ferguson points out that three other hunger strikers (Raymond McCreesh, Patrick O'Hara and Francis Hughes) are determined to follow Sands’ example of starving themselves to death, considers the effect Sands’ death will have on the overall campaign and examines the factors that led him and other republican prisoners to go on hunger strike.