Brian Stack (1935/1936 — 29 September 1984), the chief prison officer at

Portlaoise Prison Portlaoise Prison ( ga, Príosún Phort Laoise) is a maximum security prison in Portlaoise, County Laois, Ireland. Until 1929 it was called the Maryborough Gaol. It should not be confused with the Midlands Prison, which is a newer, medium secur ...

, was shot in the neck in 1983 by members of the

Provisional IRA The Irish Republican Army (IRA; ), also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and informally as the Provos, was an Irish republicanism, Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, fa ...

and died after 18 months in hospital. He was the only officer in the Irish Prison Service to be killed in connection with

the Troubles The Troubles ( ga, Na Trioblóidí) were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an " ...

in Northern Ireland. Political controversy arose in 2016 around allegations that

Gerry Adams Gerard Adams ( ga, Gearóid Mac Ádhaimh; born 6 October 1948) is an Irish republican politician who was the president of Sinn Féin between 13 November 1983 and 10 February 2018, and served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for Louth from 2011 to 2020. ...

, the leader of

Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur G ...

, knew the identity of the killers.

Shooting and death

Portlaoise Prison is the Republic of Ireland's high security prison and the place of detention for most of those convicted under the

Offences against the State Act Offense or offence may refer to: Common meanings * Offense or crime, a violation of penal law * An insult, or negative feeling in response to a perceived insult * An attack, a proactive offensive engagement * Sin, an act that violates a known m ...

, including republican paramilitaries convicted in relation to

in Northern Ireland. As chief prison officer, Stack was responsible for reviewing security at the prison to prevent escape attempts. Stack's family later believed his efficacy in this role was what motivated his killers. In a 2013 statement, the IRA said "In Portlaoise a brutal prison regime saw prisoners and their families suffer greatly. This is the context in which IRA

volunteer Volunteering is a voluntary act of an individual or group freely giving time and labor for community service. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergency rescue. Others serve ...

s shot your father." On 25 March 1983, Stack watched an

Irish Amateur Boxing Association The Irish Athletic Boxing Association Ltd. (IABA) is the national governing body for amateur boxing on the island of Ireland, developing and controlling the sport. Founded in 1911, the IABA operates from the National Stadium in Dublin, the on ...

tournament in the

National Stadium Many countries have a national sport stadium, which typically serves as the primary or exclusive home for one or more of a country's national representative sports teams. The term is most often used in reference to an association football stadiu ...

in Dublin. He was returning to his parked car on South Circular Road when he was shot in the neck from behind. The shooter escaped on a motorcycle driven by an accomplice. Stack was taken to hospital in a coma. He awoke with paraplegia and brain damage and remained in hospital until his death on 29 September 1984.

Investigations

Brian Stack's son Austin, later a senior officer at Wheatfield Prison, has been critical of the initial criminal investigation carried out by the Garda Síochána (police). A 2007–08

cold case A cold case is a crime, or a suspected crime, that has not yet been fully resolved and is not the subject of a current criminal investigation, but for which new information could emerge from new witness testimony, re-examined archives, new or r ...

review led to a restart by the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation (NBCI); in 2015, the '' Irish Independent'' reported that the NBCI had interviewed a suspect now living in Spain and sent a file to the Director of Public Prosecutions. The IRA initially denied involvement in the shooting. After Gerry Adams' 2013 meeting with Austin Stack, the IRA released a statement that its army council had conducted an internal investigation, determined that some of its members had carried out the shooting, and "disciplined" the perpetrators for acting without authorisation from their IRA superiors.

Sinn Féin legacy

Austin Stack has campaigned for information about his father's killers. In 2013, he and his brother Oliver had several meetings with Gerry Adams. Austin Stack and Adams have given conflicting accounts of the number and locations of the meetings and who else was present at them. Adams claims the Stacks named two

members of the Oireachtas (parliament) whom they said the Garda suspected of involvement; Adams further claimed the two denied involvement when he questioned them. Stack claims he only asked for names and did not give any names to Adams. In the run-up to the

2016 Irish general election The 2016 Irish general election took place on Friday 26 February to elect 158 Teachtaí Dála (TDs) across 40 constituencies to Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas, Ireland's parliament. The 31st Dáil was dissolved by Presid ...

, Stack was critical of Adams' 2013 actions. In December 2016, Adams made a "personal explanation" in the

32nd Dáil 3 (three) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious or cultural significance in many societie ...

giving his version of the 2013 events; afterwards,

Alan Farrell Alan Farrell (born 29 December 1977) is an Irish Fine Gael politician who has been a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin Fingal constituency since 2016, and previously from 2011 to 2016 for the Dublin North constituency. He previously served as C ...

of Fine Gael used parliamentary privilege to suggest

Martin Ferris Martin Ferris (born 28 March 1952) is a former Irish Sinn Féin politician and former Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteer who served as a Teachta Dála (TD) from 2002 to 2020. Early and personal life Ferris was born in Strand Stre ...

and Dessie Ellis were the two Sinn Féin members alluded to. Both denied this and alleged Farrell was abusing privilege; Ellis noted that he was in prison at the time of the 1983 shooting. In March 2018, Senator Máire Devine was suspended from Sinn Féin for three months for

retweet Reblogging (or, in Twitter parlance, retweeting) is the mechanism in blogging which allows users to repost the content of another user's post with an indication that the source of the post is another user. It was first developed by Jonah Peretti ...

ing a parody

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

account's tweet describing Brian Stack as a "sadist".

Commemoration

On 3 May 2013, Alan Shatter, the Minister for Justice, attended a commemoration at the Midland Prison Centre in Portlaoise, where he unveiled a bust of Stack; renamed Beladd House, location of the Irish Prison Service College, as Brian Stack House; renamed the gold Merit Medal, the Irish Prison Service's highest honour, as the Stack Medal; and presented the first Stack Medal to Brian Stack's widow.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stack, Brian People killed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army Unsolved murders in Ireland Deaths by firearm in the Republic of Ireland Deaths by person in the Republic of Ireland People murdered in the Republic of Ireland 1984 deaths 1930s births Date of birth missing 2016 in Irish politics Political scandals in the Republic of Ireland March 1983 events in Europe 1984 murders in the Republic of Ireland 1983 murders in the Republic of Ireland Prison officers