Family of prison officer shot dead by IRA to get state apology
Brian Stack was crossing a street in Dublin in 1983 when he was shot in the back of the neck and died 18 months later.
Family of prison officer shot dead by IRA to receive state apology
The family of a senior Irish prison officer murdered by the IRA is due to receive a state apology on Wednesday over shortcomings in the investigations into his killing.
Brian Stack, a father of three, was crossing a street in Dublin after attending a boxing match in 1983 when he was shot in the back of the neck.
Stack, who served as chief prison officer at the high-security Portlaoise Prison, was left paralysed and died 18 months later at the age of 49.
Three separate garda investigations were carried out into Stack's death, but no one was ever brought to justice for the killing. On Wednesday, Taoiseach Micheál Martin will apologise on behalf of the state during a sitting of the Dáil.
Speaking on BBC Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster programme, Brian Stack's son Austin Stack said the apology "means an awful lot to us".
"It's a great sense of comfort, to particularly my mother and to myself and my two brothers, because the state is officially owning up to the errors and the missions that happened," he said.
He added that the serious crime review team examined the first investigation and "they found 194 errors and omissions".
"So I have, and my family have, met with several ministers for justice down through the years and we have a requested sight of that report.
"And every time we've requested it, we've been told that it's an internally valid document and that we cannot see it."
Austin Stack said Wednesday would be an extremely emotional day for his family.
"My dad was doing a very difficult job at a very difficult time in our history," he said.
"He was awarded the Irish Prison Service's highest bravery award for that work that he was doing. And this is further vindication of him and his good name."
Before the Dáil proceedings, the Stack family will have a private meeting at government buildings with the taoiseach and Minister for Justice Jim O'Callaghan.
The IRA admitted killing Stack in 2013 after his family led a long campaign to secure the admission, and they met Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams and a former IRA commander.
At that time, Adams expressed his "regret" to the Stack family over the killing.
In 2019, the family received an apology from then garda commissioner Drew Harris over the handling of the murder investigation.
In 2023, gardaí informed the family that the file on the case, which was with the DPP (Director of Public Prosecutions), was being returned to police for further investigation.
Stack was the only prison officer in the state killed by violence linked to the Troubles in Northern Ireland.