March 1

O.K. campers, what is 38 inches long and has 47 holes? Obviously, the answer is Irishman Bobby Sands’ belt. On the 1st in 1981, Robert Gerard Sands, while imprisoned in The Maze prison in Northern Ireland, began a hunger strike to protest the English treatment of the Irish nation. The following March 9 was his 27th birthday and I imagine he took a pass on the birthday cake. At the beginning of the strike, on April 9, 1981, he was elected to Parliament. Sands had been imprisoned in October, 1972 for his somewhat militant approach to the issue of Irish independence. The hunger strike ended only with Sands’ death on May 5, while still in custody.