There was a quiet and sombre atmosphere in the Dáil chamber as the Taoiseach formally apologised on behalf of the State to the family of Brian Stack over the flawed investigation into his murder by the IRA.
Micheál Martin said Stack and his family were “badly failed by the investigation into his killing”.
Just 49 years old when he died, the senior prison officer was shot in the neck in March 1983 as he left the National Stadium in Dublin after a boxing tournament. He had been approached from behind by a man in a balaclava.
“Brian survived the shooting but was left paralysed and brain damaged, and, after fighting on bravely for 18 months, he succumbed to his injuries on September 29th, 1984,” the Taoiseach said.
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The father of a young family, he served the State “with great distinction”.
His wife Sheila and sons Austin, Kieran and Oliver, who pressed for the apology, sat in the visitors gallery as the Taoiseach spoke.
The apology was offered for the shortcomings of three Garda investigations following the IRA shooting.
Martin said “those who shot him, transported the killer and covered for them in the intervening decades” were the parties “responsible” for the killing. But Stack and his family were “badly failed” by the subsequent Garda investigations.
He was a man providing a “hugely important service” as chief prison officer at Portlaoise Prison, at a time of “great peril for the State”.
The family “campaigned tirelessly” to “uncover the truth of what happened” to Stack, and to keep his memory and legacy alive, Martin said.
An Garda Síochána “continues to pursue live lines of inquiry in the case and is making every effort to bring those responsible to justice”. But he said: “Unforgivably, we still don’t have the full truth of, or any justice for, what happened that day”, a “very dark day in our country’s history”.
He highlighted investigation failings, including a failure to keep a map of the crime scene and a motorbike helmet found nearby, or to keep custody of materials gathered during the investigation.
Other failures included not interviewing prisoners, prison officers in Portlaoise Prison, or Stack’s family and friends.
Gardaí also failed to identify a link to the IRA “until this was admitted to Austin and Oliver Stack by a former IRA commander in 2013 through their own family efforts to uncover the truth”.
Addressing the family, he thanked them and paid tribute to their dedicated campaign for their father. “I share your hope that justice may still come.”
In a personal statement to the Dáil in 2016, Sinn Féin’s then leader Gerry Adams said the shooting of Stack was wrong but he had “no information” on who carried out the killing.
Labour leader Ivana Bacik recalled that contribution on Wednesday, saying: “It’s very rare for the Dáil to give a member time for a personal statement, and it’s the Labour Party’s view that Gerry Adams wasted that opportunity in failing to provide the Stack family with substantive answers in that statement.”
She said: “As we all know, there are people – there must be people – who know who Brian Stack’s killer or killers were or are.
“Indeed, it’s been alleged that former members of this House either knew who the killer was, or indeed possessed information that would have been material to an investigation into the killing.”
Sinn Féin was represented in the chamber by the party’s Dáil leader Pearse Doherty, who welcomed the State apology on Sinn Féin’s behalf and offered his “sincere sympathies” to the family.
He was standing in for party leader Mary Lou McDonald, who was in Belfast being interviewed by the PSNI over her attendance at a demonstration against the Orange Order march on Garvaghy Road in Portadown.
Doherty said the “hurt caused by republican actions must be acknowledged, and that suffering cannot be disowned”.
“The shooting of Brian Stack was wrong; it should never have happened. His family suffered a terrible loss. The failures in the investigations compounded that suffering and left them seeking answers over many decades.”
He told the Dáil: “I am sorry for all the lives lost during the period of conflict on this island, without exception.”
Other families also sought answers. “Their circumstances differ, but each deserves dignity, compassion and a fair hearing. Families should be supported in seeking [truth] and accountability without having to carry the burden of a public campaign for decades.
“People from all walks of life and every background suffered through the actions of British state forces, republicans – including the IRA – and unionist paramilitaries,” Doherty said.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Six One, Austin Stack said it was a “very emotional” day for him, his mother and his two brothers, and thanked the Taoiseach and Tánaiste “for agreeing to do the state apology”.
Stack said it was “disheartening” for the family when they found out that there were 194 errors and omissions in the original Garda investigation.
“We are hopeful that at some stage, even though the likelihood is growing less likely every day, but we are still hopeful that something will come out of the Garda investigation.
He said it was a “very emotional” day for his 82-year old mother following the State apology over the investigations into Brian Stack’s death
“At the time, she was 39 and myself, my two brothers were were quite young. We were young teenagers, and, you know, she had to bring us up our own … it was a very traumatic time in for her.”
