LOCAL literary and cultural society Pangur Bán – based in the Market area – have launched a series of events to mark the 70th birthday of Bobby Sands.

Established in 2014, the group aims to promote respect for, and a better understanding of, working class life, history and culture.

The events, called ‘Bobby at 70: Market Bobby Sands Project’ will run between March and May this year and will highlight the different aspects of Bobby Sands’ life through a series of talks, song and story nights, a film screening and book club. This educational project will celebrate Bobby’s legacy in film, song and story as well as allowing residents an opportunity to uncover the strong connections he had to the Market area.

Speaking about the project, Pangur Bán Chairperson Claire-Louise Mooney, said: “Bobby Sands is an icon of struggle. His death in 1981 was a defining moment in the republican struggle, and the ramifications of that seismic event are still reverberating in Irish politics today.

"Beyond our shores, his example continues to inspire liberation movements around the world, from the struggle for national liberation in Palestine, to the struggle to build socialism in Cuba, Bobby Sands has left an enduring legacy.”

Running throughout the entirety of the project, Pangur Bán will be holding a bi-weekly book club which will introduce residents, and those from outside the Market community, to the Bobby Sands’ Prison Writings together with Denis O’Hearn’s biography, ‘Nothing but an Unfinished Song'.

The project will begin today Friday at 7pm in the Market Community Centre, with a night of song and story exploring the history of hunger strikes in Ireland.

The programme will also be delving into the prison struggle, the impact Bobby’s death had internationally and how his life continues to inspire working class communities across Belfast, Ireland and around the world until this day.

You can find out more about the project by following Pangur Bán on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.