Family of IRA victim Brian Stack get State apology for flawed Garda inquiry but still lack ‘the full truth’

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has apologised on behalf of the State to the family of the late prison officer Brian Stack.

The apology was offered for the failings and shortcomings of three Garda investigations after Stack was shot by the IRA in March 1983 and later died in hospital.

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, he said, he was offering an apology on behalf of the State because Stack and his family were “badly failed by the investigation into his killing”.

He described Stack as a man who was providing a “hugely important service” as chief prison officer at Portlaoise Prison, at a time of “great peril for the State”.

“As Taoiseach, and on behalf of the Government, I want to formally apologise to the Stack family for these failings,” he said.

The late prison officer’s wife Sheila and sons Austin, Kieran and Oliver Stack sat in the distinguished visitors’ gallery for the apology.

The Dáil chamber heard that Stack was leaving the National Stadium in Dublin after attending a boxing match when he was approached from behind by a masked man and shot in the neck.

“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 29 September 1984,” Martin said.

“He was a very senior prison officer who was serving the State with great distinction, and the father of a young family”, a man “in the prime of his life”.

The Taoiseach said the family “campaigned tirelessly” to “uncover the truth of what happened” to Stack, and to keep his memory and legacy alive.

He 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. But with the facts we have, we know it was a very dark day in our country’s history.”

He highlighted failings in the investigation, including a failure to keep a map of the crime scene and a motorbike helmet found nearby, or to keep custody of exhibits, including fingerprints, samples and debris gathered during the investigation.

There was also a failure to document potentially important aspects of the investigation, including whether an identification line-up process was conducted before witnesses, and whether interviews were conducted with prison officers and prisoners in Portlaoise, which was the highest security jail in the State holding many IRA prisoners.

There was also a failure to interview Stack’s family and friends, and a failure by gardaí 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”.

The failure of gardaí to document these aspects of the investigation “raises legitimate concerns” about the competence of the investigation, he said.

“This is an inherently unfair position to place the Stack family in, and today I also apologise for this.”

He said Stack “served the State with great distinction and honour at a time when the endpoint of the Troubles still appeared to be remote”.

He said prison officers like Stack were “in the vanguard of the effort to defend the State against subversives that wished to undermine it”.

Addressing the family, he said: “In addition to the apology I have offered, I also want to thank and pay tribute to you for your dedication to that quest, and to your father, Brian. I share your hope that justice may still come.

“Sheila, Austin, Kieran and Oliver, it is through your dignity, your courage and your love that Brian Stack will not be forgotten.

“It is my sincere hope that the words I speak today on behalf of the Government may provide some measure of peace to you.”