Why is there a Bobby Sands Street in Tehran?

Ben Crowley

Oct. 4, 2022

Firstly, for those who didn’t know, Bobby Sands is famous for being a political prisoner in Northern Ireland during the troubles. He was a member of the Irish Republican Army and fought against the British presence in Northern Ireland.  He spent several stints in prison for his activities and the British authorities branded him a terrorist.

Bobby Sands died in the famous H Block hunger strikes in Belfast where IRA members held in prison starved themselves in protest at being treated as normal prisoners such as rapsists, with Bobby Stands eventually dying from starvation.

Sands died on 5 May 1981 in the Maze's P rison hospital after 66 days on hunger strike, aged 27. The original pathologist's report recorded the hunger strikers' causes of death as "self-imposed starvation", amended to simply "starvation" following protests by the dead strikers' families.

Sands became a martyr to Irish republicans, and the announcement of his death prompted several days of rioting in nationalist areas of Northern Ireland. More than 100,000 people lined the route of Sands' funeral.

While in prison, Bobby Sands managed to be elected to the UK House of Commons, narrowly winning the seat.

After his death the local government of Tehran decided to rename the street that the British Embassy is on Bobby Sands Street, in honour of the Irish nationalist, and also for some cheap political point scoring against the British government. Winston Churchill Boulevard was the street that was renamed, where the Embassy of the United Kingdom in Tehran is located, to Bobby Sands Street.

In turn, the British Embassy had to make a side entrance on a side street their main entrance so as not to have Bobby Sands Street written on their letter heads and other correspondence. As such the Embassy’s main entrance was moved to a side door on Ferdowsi Street.

An official blue and white street sign was affixed to the rear wall of the British Embassy compound saying (in Persian) "Bobby Sands Street" with three words of explanation "militant Irish guerrilla". The official Pars News Agency called Bobby Sands' death "heroic". There have been claims that the British have pressured Iranian authorities to change the name of Bobby Sands Street, unsuccessfully obviously, but this was denied.

Strangely a second street in Tehran in the Elahieh district is also named after Bobby Sands. Other than the two streets in Tehran, there is also a take away burger shop named after the famous Irishman, which is called, you guessed it, Bobby Sands Burgers.

This is actually quite a common play by various governments, with the United States recently renaming the street that the Russian Embassy is on in Washington DC. The city council voted to rename the street outside Russia's Embassy complex after Boris Nemtsov, who was shot outside the Kremlin in 2015.

Likewise, the authorities in Moscow recently renamed the street that the US Embassy is on after the the separatist Donetsk Republic -  Donetsk People's Republic Square. Several governments in Europe have followed suit and renamed the streets that are home to Russian Embassied to names such as Freedom Street, and Ukraine Hero's Street.