Murdered Laois prison officer's family's fight for justice told in Portlaoise man's in new book

A new book is the latest chapter in a Portlaoise man's fight for justice for his Laois father who was murdered by the Provisional IRA during the troubles. 

Brian Stack was the chief prison officer working on the paramilitary wing of Portlaoise Prison in 1983. He was also a fan of amateur boxing, and had travelled from Laois to see a match in the National Stadium Dublin in March of that year.

Not long after leaving the home of one of Ireland's most popular sports, he was shot in cold blood outside the venue by an IRA gunman, leaving him paralysed and brain damaged. He died from injuries within 18 months, leaving a wife and three young sons.

Austin Stack, who is a retired prison officer, was 14 when his father passed away, but he never forgotten his father nor has he ever given up hope of bringing his murderers to justice.

Austin's new book, Justice For My Father, is an account of his ongoing quest for justice, and his determination to set the record straight.

The IRA has admitted to killing Brian Stack but Austin continues his struggle for true justice as he outlines to the Leinster Express / Laois Live.

“The IRA and other terrorists groupings at the time (of my father's death) issued statements denying responsibility for the attack,” he said on the book's publication.

“However, I always suspected the IRA were responsible due to them having the motive of escape, the ability to mount such an attack and the secrecy that surrounded it afterwards. MORE BELOW PICTURE.

“These suspicions were further confirmed by some colleagues of Dad’s that I met in the early 1990s. The initial investigation by the Gardai seemed to go nowhere and as a family we were not kept up to date on the investigation until we started to pursue the matter in 2006.

“We had received some information from a journalist that detailed physical evidence and fingerprints that had been recovered in the initial investigation.

“The Gardai admitted to having this evidence but claimed to have mislaid it and they started a new cold case investigation which yielded 296 recommendations which were essentially failures in the initial investigation.

“We were not given access to this report, however, a new investigation was launched based on the report.

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“In 2012 the Gardai told us that they did not believe the IRA were responsible, which led me to pursue Sinn Féin and Gerry Adams to get an admission of responsibility.

“This culminated in my brother Oliver and I being brought in a blacked out van up the mountains on the Louth/Armagh border to meet with an IRA representative in 2013 where they gave us an admission.

“However, they claimed for political reasons that it was not a sanctioned operation, I challenged them on this as I had information to the contrary.

“The Gardaí continue to investigate the murder and the Garda Commissioner issued an apology to the family in 2019 for the failings of the current and previous investigations," he said.

Austin, who stood in Laois for Fianna Fáil in the 2024 General Election, said the book is also his family's story.

“This book seeks to get justice for my dad and details the lengths that my family has gone to in order to achieve that,” he said.

Justice for My Father is published on March 13 by Bonnier Books.