In Popular Culture
The Grateful Dead played the Nassau Coliseum the following night after Sands died and guitarist Bob Weir dedicated the song "He's Gone" to Sands. The concert was later released as Dick's Picks Volume 13, part of the Grateful Dead's programme of live concert releases.
The music video for the The Cranberries song Zombie shows a clip of a mural commemorating Sands.
Songs written in response to the hunger strikes and Sands' death include songs by Black 47, Nicky Wire, Meic Stevens, The Undertones, Bik McFarlane and Eric Bogle. Christy Moore's song, "The People's Own MP", has been described as an example of a rebel song of the "hero-martyr" genre in which Sands' "intellectual, artistic and moral qualities" are eulogised. American rock band Rage Against the Machine have listed Sands as an inspiration in the sleeve notes of their self-titled debut album. and as a "political hero" in media interviews
Bobby Sands has also been portrayed in the following films:
- Bobby Sands was played by John Lynch in the 1996 film Some Mother's Son. It was directed by Terry George and written by George and Jim Sheridan.
- Bobby Sands was played by Mark O'Halloran in the 2001 film H3.
- Il Silenzio dell'Allodola (2005, aka The Silence of the Skylark) by Italian film director and scriptwriter David Ballerini features Ivan Franek as Bobby Sands. It won awards and was premiered in Ireland at the Cork Film Festival, screened at Rotterdam Int. Film Festival and several other festivals.
- Michael Fassbender played Bobby Sands in Hunger, a 2008 film by artist Steve McQueen about the last six weeks of Bobby Sands' life in the context of the 1981 Irish hunger strike. It premiered at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival and won McQueen the prestigious Caméra d'Or award for first-time filmmakers. It was broadcast on Channel 4 in the UK for the first time on 15 December 2009.
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