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The Prime Minister's sentiments had the full backing of Opposition Leader Michael Foot, who said that government concessions would give "sure aid to the recruitment of terrorists." Within hours of the funeral, Home Secretary William Whitelaw announced the government's other response: the intent to plug a legal loophole that had allowed Sands, a convicted felon, to stand for Parliament. Westminster wanted no repetition of the I.R.A.'s ploy when yet another by-election is called in Northern Ireland's turbulent Fermanagh and South Tyrone constituency.
Sands' fatal hunger strike now appears to be only the prelude to a sustained movement by other Maze prisoners. Three I.R.A. members joined Sands in the three weeks after he had begun to fast on March 1, and one, Francis Hughes, 25, was reported to be sinking quickly. After Sands' death, other I.R.A. prisoners announced that they would take the place of any hunger striker who died. But the British had no intention of giving way, even if, as a spokesman at 10 Downing Street harshly put it, "they drop like flies."
The prospect of a sustained war of attrition hardly boded well for the scarred, sad urban ghettos of Belfast, Londonderry and other Northern centers. As the clanging of garbage can lids announced the news of Sands' death, gangs of Catholic youths once again rampaged through the streets, despite calls from the I.R.A. itself for calm as the organization prepared its martyr's farewell. Cars and other vehicles were overturned and burned as impromptu barricades. As they had in previous weeks, plumes of smoke from Molotov cocktails hung over Belfast. One youngster blew himself up as he tried to plant a crudely made bomb in that city; a Belfast policeman was shot to death. Another youth died during a riot-caused auto crash. The violence spread to the Irish Republic, where a Dublin gang ran amuck along fashionable Dawson Street, hurling rocks and debris through shop windows. Heavy police protection was given to scores of British Members of Parliament.
Sands' death also managed to cast a shadow abroad. The state legislatures of New Jersey and Massachusetts passed resolutions deploring Sands' death. The 110,000-member International Longshoremen's Association, which mans the docks along the U.S. East and Gulf coasts, announced a one-day boycott of ships flying the Union Jack (only three vessels were believed to be affected). Of more serious consequence was the high probability that Republican sympathizers in the U.S. were once again passing the hat for the I.R.A., renewing the flow of arms-buying money estimated as high as $3 million annually.
Yet despite fears of an immediate bout of terrorism in retaliation for Sands' death, the I.R.A. last week bided its time. It might have reason to avoid testing its strength openly — and risking a defeat. For example, an I.R.A. attempt to coerce Irish Republic shopkeepers into closing down for a national day of mourning for Sands ended as a dismal failure.