A FORMER prison comrade of Bobby Sands who recently visited a famous Cuban memorial to the hunger strikers has asked for it to be better signposted for future visitors.
Jake Mac Siacais travelled to the large memorial in Havana city centre which was unveiled in 2001 to mark the 20th anniversary of the hunger strike.
As well as listing the 10 men who died in 1981, it includes words from the country’s late president Fidel Castro condemning British “stubbornness, intransigence and cruelty”.
Castro's comments are inscribed on a plaque where he describes the deaths as a “global repugnant atrocity” and he says that the Irish patriots proved that they were not criminals but part of an “insurrection against tyranny”.
The memorial also reads in Irish: “Thug siad a raibh acu do shaoirse na hÉireann.”
The stone was officially unveiled by former Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams and continues to attract Irish visitors to the Caribbean island.
Jake was in the next cell to Bobby Sands and gave a speech on behalf of the prisoners when Bobby was moved to the prison hospital. Now he has written to the Cuban ambassador in Dublin asking for the memorial to be better publicised for international visitors.
Jake told the Andersonstown News: “We couldn’t find it mentioned in any of the international tourist guides which we brought with us from Ireland, although of course it should be included.
Jake reading from the memorial dedicated to the hunger-strikers
“We spent a few hours trying to find it and eventually did find it, thanks to a journalist who we just happened to bump into and this man had been in Belfast a few years back.”
In his letter to Cuban Ambassador Hugo René Ramos Milanés this week, Jake writes: “A group of friends and I recently visited the wonderful and inspiring city of Havana, which continues to offer us inspiration in its resilience in the face of the worst effects of the illegal North American blockade of Cuba.
“Whilst there we decided to visit the memorial to the Irish Hunger Strikers of 1981, with whom I was imprisoned during that awful year.
“We found great difficulty in locating it but thankfully eventually did with help from a journalist at the Prensa Latina.
“I’m sure that Irish visitors to Cuba would also like to visit this inspiring monument which bears testament to the great friendship and mutual respect between the Cuban and Irish people.
“The presence of the monument isn’t really advertised and nor is there any indication on Avenida De los Preseidentes indicating its presence.
“Would it be at all possible to have it made more visible by way of either signage or by making potential visitors aware of its presence?”
Cuba was just one of a number of countries to mark the 1981 hunger strikes. Cities as far apart as Tehran and Paris have named streets in honour of Bobby Sands and there are several international monuments commemorating the hunger strikers' deaths.
