The Re-interment of Frank Stagg. | Slán Brendan

Léargas: A Podcast by Gerry Adams

The Re-interment of Frank Stagg.

Last week we remembered Frank Stagg who died on hunger strike in an English prison in February 1976.

Frank began his fourth and final hunger strike in December 1975. He died 62 days later. He last request was "to be buried next to my republican colleagues and my comrade, Michael Gaughan" who died on hunger strike two years earlier. Michael had been buried in Ballina with republican honours.

Faced with the prospect of another high-profile funeral of a republican hunger striker the plane carrying Frank Stagg’s coffin was diverted by the Irish Government from Dublin, where the Stagg family and friends were waiting, to Shannon. Frank’s body was hijacked and taken by helicopter to Ballina, where it was buried. A 24-hour guard was put in place and concrete was poured over it to prevent the family from exhuming the coffin.

Frank’s brother George later described how, when he took his mother to visit the grave, Special Branch officers took photographs of her as she knelt and prayed.

Slán Brendan.

This week came with the death of our comrade and friend, Bik McFarlane.