SINN FÉIN LEADER Gerry Adams says that he didn’t know the IRA murdered prison officer Brian Stack until 2013.
Speaking to RTÉ Radio’s This Week today, Adams said that he was given a list of names by the Stack family in 2013, but did not hand it over to gardaí for three years.
Brian Stack died 18 months after was shot in the neck as he left a boxing match in Dublin in 1983. The Provisional IRA later claimed responsibility for shooting, but no one has ever been brought to justice.
He said he had not done so as Austin Stack had told him the names had come from gardaí. He said he handed over the names to “get rid of any ambiguity” over allegations he was withholding information.
He added that Stack had asked him to talk to the people whose names were on the list.
Adams said that the government had used the murder in a “ridiculous way” to “get” him and Sinn Féin. This, he said, was in contradiction of the Stormont House Agreement.
He repeatedly said that he would not turn over the name of an IRA commander he had taken the Stack family to meet.
Adams said that he had only found out that IRA members had shot Stack shortly before he met Brian Stack in 2013.
“The family wanted to know if the IRA was involved, they had heard the INLA was involved, there was some talk that criminal elements were involved.
“They told me that that was causing an awful lot of angst for them.”
Asked if he wanted to see Stack’s murderers facing court in Dublin, Adams said:
“I want everyone to cooperate with An Garda Síochána.”
He said he was satisfied he had “delivered on this case” and he was unlikely to cooperate with requests for information relating to killings in the Troubles.
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