Isolated but unbowed
The story of Frank Stagg's hunger strike in a British
jail
BY JONATHAN O'MEARA
| |
We are the risen people, this time we must not be driven into
the gutter. Even if this should mean dying for justice. The fight
must go on. I want my memorial to be peace with justice.
- Frank
Stagg
|
In almost every decade of the last century, Irish republican
prisoners held in jails in Ireland and England have been forced
to embark on hunger strike as a last resort in support of their
demands for political status. The second of the 12 republicans to
die on hunger strike during the latest phase of struggle was
Volunteer Frank Stagg.
Born in the village of Hollymount, County Mayo, in 1941, Stagg
was the seventh child of a family of thirteen. He attended
Newbrooke Primary school and later went on to attend the
Christian Brothers Secondary School in Ballinrobe. People in his
native village remembered him as being a `nice lad from a nice
family', others recalled his prowess at Gaelic football and
handball. On leaving school he worked with his uncle as a
gamekeeper before emigrating to England.
In England, Frank was employed as a bus conductor and later
qualified as a bus driver. In 1970 he married Bridie Armstrong
from Carnicon, County Mayo. He joined Sinn Fein in Luton in 1972
and shortly afterwards joined the IRA. Frank remained in touch
with home and spent his annual holidays in Hollymount up to the
year of his arrest and imprisonment in 1973. In the words of his
mother, ``he never forgot he was Irish''.
Stagg was arrested in Coventry in April 1973 and was convicted in
November of conspiring to commit arson, for which he received a
ten-year sentence. At his trial the following October with six
others, including Rev. Patrick Fell, he was described as
commanding officer of the Coventry IRA unit.
There was little or no evidence to connect him with the charge.
Stagg was convicted under the notorious British Conspiracy Laws,
brought in during the latter half of the 19th century to imprison
Irish political activists without a fair trial.
Frank Stagg began his sentence in Albany Prison on the Isle of
Wight. Insisting that he be treated as a political prisoner, he
refused to do any prison work, which resulted in him spending
most of his time in solitary confinement. In March 1974, while in
Parkhurst Prison, he and Michael Gaughan joined the hunger strike
begun by the Price sisters, Hugh Feeney and Gerry Kelly demanding
repatriation to Ireland. All suffered the horrific ordeal of
forced feeding.
Stagg continued for 70 days. Following the death of Gaughan, as a
result of force feeding, the remaining hunger strikers ended
their fast after assurances from the prison authorities that they
would be transferred to a prison in Ireland.
Frank's prison life was one of broken promises and torture.
Promises that his demands would be met. Three simple demands:
* A guarantee that he would not be returned to solitary
confinement;
* The right to educational facilities and not to do prison work;
* The setting of a `reasonable' date for a transfer to an Irish
prison.
The authorities however, pursued a policy of giving in to
prisoners' demands when they were on hunger strike only to
reneged on their promises once the prisoner came off protest.
Frustrated by such vindictive tactics and determined to secure
his demands or die, Stagg embarked at the end of 1975 on another
hunger strike, his fourth in two years.
In early February 1976, as Stagg and Mealey entered their eight
and seventh weeks, respectively, on hunger strike, Stagg,
recognising the intransigence of the British Home Office and the
hopelessness of his own status, persuaded his comrade to end his
fast, for the sake of his wife and children.
One week later, the inevitable happened. Frank Stagg died after
fasting for 62 days. In his final message to his comrades in the
Republican Movement he wrote: ``We are the risen people, this time
we must not be driven into the gutter. Even if this should mean
dying for justice. The fight must go on. I want my memorial to be
peace with justice.''
In order that he be afforded a republican funeral, Stagg stated
in his will that his body should be entrusted to Derek Highstead,
then Sinn Féin organiser in England. The Wakefield coroner
complied with his request.
While the remains were being flown home to Dublin, the 26-County
government tried to cajole, intimidate, and bribe members of the
Stagg family to collaborate in a week of desecration. Having
failed, the institutions and servants of the state were used to
hijack the body and orchestrate a parody of a funeral of honour.
The Fine Gael/Labour coalition government under Fine Gael
Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave chose to defy in the most callous and
insulting manner imaginable the deathbed wishes of a hero and to
use the Special Branch to bury him.
The state's hijacking of Frank Stagg's body was vile enough and
virtually a carbon copy of the Crown's treatment of Tomás Mac
Suibhne's remains in 1920, but not even the Crown dared to defy
Irish traditions and interfered no more once the diverted coffin
reached Cork. It was a shaming and shameful affair.
On Saturday, 21 February, Requiem mass, boycotted by almost all
his relatives, was held. He body was taken to Ballina, where it
was brought by Special Branch men to a grave some 70 yards from
the Republican Plot in Leigue Cemetery, where he asked to be
buried. In order to prevent any reinterrment by republicans, the
Special Branch afterwards poured six feet of concrete on top of
the coffin.
The following day, republicans held their own ceremonies at the
Republican plot, despite a mass presence of Gardaí. A volley of
shots was fired by IRA Volunteers to salute their fallen comrade.
Following an oration by Joe Cahill, a pledge was made that Frank
Stagg's body would be moved to the Republican Plot to fulfill
Frank's wishes. On 6 November 1976, Frank Stagg's remains were
removed by IRA volunteers and reinterred beside the remains of
his comrade, Michael Gaughan, in the Republican Plot.
Volunteer Frank Stagg died on hunger strike on 12 February 1976,
25 years ago this week.
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