Picture Connecticut: A Unique Irish Monument

HARTFORD, CT — This week's Picture Connecticut tour takes us to Hartford and a unique monument that seems to be a good fit for St. Patrick's Day. Regardless of one's politics, it's admittedly interesting.

It's the Bobby Sands/hunger strike memorial that sits on an oblong traffic island along the 900 block of Maple Avenue in the capital city. It has stood in that spot since 1997.

The Bobby Sands Memorial Cross, according to Publicartct.org, was commissioned by the Irish Northern Aid Society and Richard P. Lawlor. It is designed to commemorate the death of Sands, who succumbed to a hunger strike on May 5, 1981. Sands was the first of 10 members of the Irish Republicans to perish. during the strike, which qualified for them to be considered political prisoners in British captivity.

The granite monument was designed and carved by John W. Scott of the High Cross Monument Company, a Texas firm specializing in the carving of Celtic crosses. It was installed by S.L. Zocco Memorials, Inc of Bloomfield.

The base of the monument features the names of Sands and the other hunger strikers, along with two other Irish prisoners who died on hunger strike in the mid 1970s.

The traffic island is called Bobby Sands Circle.

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Picture Connecticut is a weekly series that features images of the state, past and present.Here are past images:2024

• Mr. Jonathan Goes To Hartford, Hartford
• The Latest Discount Airline, New Haven
• State Groundhog Gets Arrested, Manchester
• Historic Wartime Sutures, Willington
• Big Business Week In CT, statewide
• The Marketplace at Guilford Food Center Guilford
• Main Street at night, Middletown
• The Hide-and-Seek Bear, Tolland
• The MLK Mural, Manchester
• The Mount Southington Summit, Southington

2023

• All Faiths Gather At Town Park, Vernon
• Riverside Igloos, Milford
• The TPC Pro Shop, Cromwell
• The Santa House, North Pole, er, Northern Connecticut
• Mile 4 Funnel, Manchester Road Race, Manchester
• UConn Lacrosse Giving Back, Connecticut River Valley
• The Capitol Grounds Tour, Part 3, Hartford
• The Capitol Grounds Tour, Part 2, Hartford
• The Capitol Grounds Tour, Part 1, Hartford
• The Doughboy, East Hartford
• The Walt Whitman Stone, West Hartford
• The indoor bush plane, Hartford County
• The Big Pink Chair, Ellington
• The Notch, Granby
• The CT 9/11 Monument, Westport
• Vintage Gas Pump, Somers
• Tobacco Harvest, East Windsor
• Late Afternoon, Lakeside, Coventry
• Fogarea, New Haven County
• Judy Black Memorial Park and Gardens, Washington Depot
• Connecticut River Police Boat, Rocky Hill
• The first dentist, Windsor
• The Frog Bridge, Willimantic
• The World War Bridge Rapids, Putnam
• The Peeking Cow, Tolland County
• The Ivy Lacrosse Tournament, New Canaan
• The Bradley International Airport runway, Windsor Locks
• The Underground Railroad, Unionville
• The cow carousel, Ellington
• Charles Island, Milford
• State Veterans Cemetery, Middletown
• Glastonbury-Rocky Hill Ferry, Glastonbury/Rocky Hill
• The Old County Jailhouse, Tolland
• Agent Orange Monument, Andover
• The Sunken Garden, Farmington
• Lafayette Tour Monument, Vernon
• The Pinchot Sycamore, Simsbury
• Bob's Discount Furniture Studios, Manchester