This week Florence City Council voted to name a street after Bobby Sands who died on hunger strike in 1981 fighting for political status. There was a discussion and when it came to a vote 33 city councillors out of 34 voted in favour of the street naming and there was just one abstention. There were three other streets newly named after Oriana Fallaci, a well-known journalist and writer from Florence; Ilaria Alpi, a brave young journalist killed in an ambush in Mogadishu, Somalia; and world-renowned Italian film director Mario Monicelli. Irish republican supporters hope that the move will encourage other municipalities to act and honour Bobby Sands and his comrades in similar ways.
To make it more authentic they will plaster the walls of the buildings on Bobby Sands Street with ****.
They've also named a side-street after a former American student in the city. I like to linger round Foxy Knoxy's back alley.
The Libyans re-named the street that the British Embassy was on "Bobby Sands St" to piss them off. The FCO's website included the address as the old name.
