Madam, - Richard English's review of Denis O'Hearn's recent book Bobby Sands: Nothing but an Unfinished Song (Books, April 8th) praises O'Hearn for his research but goes on to make several criticisms of the book.
Fair enough - though that the criticisms appeared to be about what O'Hearn did not include rather than what he did actually write. Again, that would be fine if the detail omitted would have altered the story told. It appears, however, that English wanted to read a different book than the one O'Hearn wrote.
That is particularly evident when he states: "It's on the broader IRA campaign, rather than just the prison war, that Sands's politics should ultimately be assessed". I don't believe O'Hearn set out to write a story of the IRA or the armed struggle - English had already done that remarkably well - but to tell the story of the short life of someone who now has iconic status around the world. English himself wrote a book on the life of Ernie O'Malley, an IRA revolutionary post 1916 - in an IRA that killed people as ruthlessly then as at any other period in its subsequent history. Should a book have been written about O'Malley? Certainly. And do we accurately assess the life of O'Malley only by assessing the IRA campaign in which he was involved? Certainly not.
English refers to Bobby Sands's enthusiastic reading of novels and political non-fiction in prison but comments on the naivety of his interpretation, his blurred left-wing arguments and sentimental literary tastes. I'm sure in many ways English is right - his profession requires him to be able to comment authoritatively on these matters. Perhaps if Bobby had lived another 27 years he would look back now on some of his writings and utterances with a degree of embarrassment. Who wouldn't?
Bobby Sands's political and literary education began in prison as a teenager and was restricted to the books and people he got access to. His politics was shaped in the dirt and grime of the coalface - just like Malcolm X or George Jackson - not in the plush leather chairs of a university reference library. It was cut short when it had only just begun to develop, so of course it lacked the finesse and rigour that English appears to expect. But then Bobby never saw himself as a political theorist or academic and that for me is the strength of O'Hearn's biography of the man - he describes Bobby as he was, warts and all.
For me, though, the most disappointing comment in Richard English's review is his reference to Bobby as "rage-filled". It jars with the memories of the man I knew - the man who, before embarking upon his hunger strike, wrote: "Let our revenge be the laughter of our children". The humanity and courage in those words will live on in the hearts and minds of those, like Bobby, who struggle to make sense of their conditions of oppression, not merely to understand those conditions, but to challenge and ultimately change them. - Yours, etc,
Dr LAURENCE McKEOWN (Former republican political prisoner), Newry, Co Down.