Family of prison officer killed by IRA to get state apology

brian stack

Brian Stack’s son said it was crucial that “the state are stepping up to the plate”.

THE FAMILY OF prison officer Brian Stack will get a state apology in the Dáil today for failures in the investigation.

Stack, a chief prison officer in Portlaoise, was shot in the neck by the IRA in March 1983 and died 18 months later.

In 2023 the Provisional IRA took responsibility for the killing, but no one was ever brought to justice despite three separate investigations into the incident.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin will address the Dáil to offer an apology on behalf of the State to the Stack family.

Speaking on RTÉ Morning Ireland on Monday, Austin Stack thanked the Taoiseach for showing “political leadership” in the approach to his father’s investigation.

He added it’s crucial that “the state are stepping up to the plate” and acknowledging the failures that took place.

“It brings a great deal of comfort to my family that the State are now officially recognising the failings that occurred in three separate investigations, particularly that first investigation”, Stack said.

In 2019 the family received an apology from then Garda Commissioner Drew Harris for failings in the investigation.

“He apologised and he made that apology public, and it is an important question for us as to why those investigations didn’t progress, and we haven’t been given any information in relation to that.”

“We have our own suspicions in that regard, but they are suspicions only. We all have to recognise that the garda intelligence were involved in a serious war against terrorism, and they would have been using informants at the time”, Stack said.

Harris described the prison officer’s murder as one of the “most horrific atrocities” during the Troubles. 

“In the 1980s in Ireland, there just wasn’t any backup, or there was no counselling, there were no supports for people like our family at the time. So getting this apology now at this time is really important to us”, Stack noted. 

With additional reporting by PA