Irish government apologises to Brian Stack’s family over inquiry failings

The Irish state has apologised to the family of Brian Stack, a senior prison officer murdered by the IRA, for serious failings in the investigation into his killing. Taoiseach Micheál Martin delivered the apology in the Dáil, acknowledging that lost evidence and investigative shortcomings harmed the case, in which nobody has been brought to justice.

Stack was shot in Dublin in 1983 after leaving a boxing match, left paralysed and died 18 months later, aged 49. A Garda review launched in 2007 identified more than 200 recommendations and 194 errors and omissions in the first investigation, including missing crime-scene material and failures to interview family members and possible witnesses; Stack’s family says it has been denied access to the report.