The IRA hunger strikes, like Easter 1916, were a watershed in Irish history and Sinn Féin owed a considerable part of its success to the 10 men who died, Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams has said.
Mr Adams made his comments yesterday on a day when several republican events were held throughout Ireland to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the death of Bobby Sands in 1981 after 66 days on hunger strike.
The family of Bobby Sands, some of whom oppose the peace process endorsed by Sinn Féin, were given permission and were expected to hold a private service at the old Maze prison near Lisburn where Sands died, but did not turn up at the prison site.
Former IRA prison colleagues and senior Sinn Féin figures, including Martin McGuinness, attended a provisional republican commemoration inside the Maze yesterday morning.
A single bunch of lilies was attached to the main gate of the prison with the inscription on the cellophane wrapping, "Bobby Sands 1954-81. RIP. My children laugh [a reference to a line in a poem by Bobby Sands]."
Outside the prison Mr McGuinness said that the hunger strikers "inspired new generations of republicans to play their part, no matter how small, in the ongoing struggle for freedom and independence".
He referred to the effect of the hunger strikes and how the then British prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, resisted the demands for political status for the prisoners. "So contrast that with where Margaret Thatcher is at today. Who does Margaret Thatcher inspire? Not even David Cameron," said Mr McGuinness.
Also at the Maze yesterday were Laurence McKeown, who survived the hunger strike; Danny Morrison, who was central to some of the negotiations around that period; and Brendan "Bik" McFarlane, the IRA OC (officer commanding) in the Maze at the time of the fast.
While Sinn Féin is marking the death of Bobby Sands and the other nine hunger strikers with a major series of events, controversy persists over whether IRA leaders allowed the strike to be prolonged in order to lay the seeds for Sinn Féin developing as a political force in Ireland.
Former hunger striker Richard O'Rawe, in his book, Blanketman, suggested that there was agreement to end the strike after four men died but that this was overruled by the IRA to ensure that Owen Carron was elected to succeed Bobby Sands as MP for Fermanagh-South Tyrone.
Mr McFarlane, however, again rejected these claims. "It is reprehensible and despicable, the nature of these allegations. What needs to be understood very, very clearly is that the leadership of the republican struggle were totally and absolutely opposed to hunger-strike action from the outset," he said.
Between the death of Bobby Sands and the last hunger striker, Michael Devine, on August 20th, 1981, 43 others were killed.
The majority were killed by the IRA while the British army killed 10 people, three of them children, two shot by plastic bullets.
Sinn Féin also acknowledged these deaths yesterday. Mr McGuinness said his thoughts were not only on the hunger strikers but on all those who died during the Troubles.
"I say that as someone who is willing to stretch out the hand of friendship to those who were previously enemies of ours. This is a new time. This is a new situation and I think there is a real sense throughout the island of Ireland that we are moving to better times," he added.
Events were held in Belfast, Dublin, Cork and other parts of the country yesterday. Mr Adams laid a wreath at a republican memorial at Hackballscross, Co Louth, on the Southern side of the Border close to south Armagh.
"The enduring legacy of the hunger strikers is to be found all around us. Like the Easter Rising 65 years earlier, it is a watershed in modern Irish history," he said.
