Robert Gerard Sands , commonly known as Bobby Sands, , was a Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteer and member of the United Kingdom Parliament who died on hunger strike whilst in HM Prison Maze for the possession of firearms.

He was the leader of the 1981 Hunger Strike, in which Irish Republican prisoners were seeking to regain status as political prisoners, and had been elected as a member of the United Kingdom Parliament as an Anti H-Block/Armagh Political Prisoner candidate during his fast. His death resulted in a new surge of IRA recruitment and activity. The international media coverage sparked a wave of support and sympathy around the world for Sands, the other hunger strikers, and the republican movement in general, although it also attracted criticism.