BELFAST CITY COUNCIL is investigating after a statue of Bobby Sands was unveiled in West Belfast without the appropriate planning permission.

It was erected in a memorial garden in Sands’ area of Twinbrook to mark 44 years since the former IRA member and MP died aged 27 following a sustained hunger strike in which 9 other republicans passed away.

They were protesting the removal of Special Category Status, which conferred on prisoners serving sentences for Troubles-related offences a status similar to that of Prisoners of War. 

The deaths of Sands and his fellow strikers caused a large increase in recruitment for the IRA, after nationalist communities largely rallied in support of the group.

The unveiling of the statue on Sunday was attended by First Minister of Northern Ireland and Sinn Féin vice-president, Michelle O’Neill who described it on X as a “powerful tribute” which she says “continues to inspire people here in Ireland and across the world in pursuit of freedom and justice”.

Today I visited the new Bobby Sands statue in his home community of Twinbrook.

I was honoured to speak with members of the community who helped make this powerful tribute a reality.

Bobby’s life and sacrifice continues to inspire people here in Ireland and across the world in… pic.twitter.com/TKLBgS11FT

— Michelle O’Neill (@moneillsf) May 4, 2025

However, Belfast City Council has said that there was no planning permission granted for the statue.

A spokesperson for the council said in a statement: “As the council has not received a planning application for this statue to date, it is investigating the matter and cannot comment further at this time.”

The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) has condemned the memorial to Sands.

Its deputy leader Michelle McIlveen told the Assembly at Stormont on Monday that Sands was “not a freedom fighter”, but instead a ”member of a brutal terrorist organisation”.

She also said that the statue will only “reopen wounds of the past”.

Sinn Féin MLA Pat Sheehan, one of the republicans who partook in the 1981 hunger strikes, spoke at the unveiling of the statue on Sunday.

He paid tribute to the “heroism and sacrifice” of Sands, adding: “Bobby Sands didn’t die just to prove he was right. He had a vision, a belief and an idea that his suffering and death would lead to a better world for the rest of us.”

Secretary of the Bobby Sands Trust, Danny Morrison, said the trust was not involved in the planning of the statue, but that he doubts many locals would object to it.

He said that there are “many monuments to Bobby around the world, streets have been named after him, books written and films made about him”, and that it honours “what the prisoners and their families suffered”.

Morrison was director of publicity for Sinn Féin at the time. He told TheJournal.ie: “I issued statements about the prison conditions. Throughout 1980, I visited Bobby Sands. We were trying to attempt to stop a hunger strike, and we succeeded until October 1980.”