Portlaoise Prison Officer Brian Stack – statement from Gerry Adams TD

'I have been working with Austin and Oliver to establish whether the IRA was involved in their father’s death'

SINN FÉIN President Gerry Adams TD issued the following statement after one today by the family of Portlaoise Prison Officer Brian Stack, who was shot in March 1983 and died the following year.

“At the beginning of May I met Austin and Oliver Stack whose father, Prison Officer Brian Stack, was shot in March 1983 and died the following year.

"They asked for my assistance in seeking answers and closure to questions they have surrounding the killing of their father. I told them I would try to help.

"Since then I have been working with Austin and Oliver to establish whether the IRA was involved in their father’s death.

"Recently I accompanied Austin and Oliver to a meeting with a former IRA leader who had enquired into the events of March 1983.

"The substance of this is contained in the family statement and confirms that the IRA was responsible for what occurred.

“I want to pay tribute to the Stack family – to Sheila Stack and her sons, Austin, Kieran and Oliver.

"On behalf of Sinn Féin, I extend my regret at the killing of Brian.

"I hope that these recent developments will help them achieve the closure they have sought for 30 years.”

The Sinn Féin leader added:

"Addressing complex and painful legacy issues is an enormous challenge.

"Dealing with the human consequences of conflict in terms acceptable to victims and their families is very difficult, especially in the absence of a process which provides for the voluntary participation of witnesses.

"Nonetheless, it is a challenge which republicans will not shy away from.

"This generation of republican activists who lived through and survived the war have a duty and a responsibility to do our best to help victims and families."

❑ RTÉ News reported after the Stack family issued their statement on Friday afternoon that the former IRA commander had said the Chief Prison Officer was killed as a reaction to the “brutal” prison regime in Portlaoise.

He said the killing had not been authorised by the IRA leadership and this was why the IRA denied any involvement.

The statement continued:

“Some years later, when the Army Council discovered that its Volunteers had shot Prison Officer Brian Stack, the Volunteer responsible for the instruction was disciplined.”