Frank Stagg

Frank Stagg (Irish: Proinsias Stagg ; born October 4, 1942 in Hollymount near Ballinrobe , County Mayo , Ireland ; † February 12, 1976 in Wakefield Prison , Yorkshire , Great Britain ) was a member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) and a hunger strike who died as a result of the 62-day hunger strike .

Early life

Frank Stagg was the seventh of 13 children. His brother Emmet Stagg is an Irish Labor Party politician and a member of the Irish House of Commons for the constituency of Kildare North .

Stagg went to school in Newbrooke and later in Ballinrobe . After finishing school, he worked as a ranger helper with his uncle, who had immigrated from Ireland to Great Britain in search of work .

First he worked in Great Britain as a bus conductor in north London and later as a bus driver. While in Great Britain he married Briddie Armstrong of Carnacon , County Mayo. In 1972 he became a member of the Luton Association of Sinn Féin and soon after became a volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA).

Political life

Wall painting of the Irish hunger strike in 1975, u. a. with Frank Stagg, remembering, in Belfast (Northern Ireland)

In April 1973, Stagg was arrested with six other people suspected of jointly planning an IRA campaign in Coventry . In Birmingham the Crown Court (Criminal Court) brought an action. The jury found three of the seven defendants not guilty. The remaining four were convicted of criminal damage to property and conspiracy in connection with arson : Stagg and the English-born priest Patrick Fell were sentenced together as commanding officers, Staag to ten and Fell to twelve, Thomas Gerald Rush and Anthony Roland Lynch to seven years each Detention. They were also sentenced to an additional ten years in prison for having in their possession materials for making explosives, such as nitric acid , containers, wax and sodium chlorate .

Stagg was then immediately in the high security prison Albany Prison on the Isle of Wight imprisoned and in March 1974 he and his companion were Michael Gaughan to Parkhurst Prison placed where they with siblings Marion Price and Dolours Price , Hugh Feeney and Gerry Kelly in a hunger strike kicked. This hunger strike resulted in the death of Michael Gaughan; the Price siblings, Feeney and Kelly were granted repatriation to Ireland. Stagg refused repatriation and was taken to Long Lartin Prison , where he spent his time in solitary confinement because he refused to work in prison. He, his wife, and siblings were humiliatingly physically examined during their visits. As a protest, he started his second hunger strike, which lasted 34 days and only ended when the prison chief ordered the investigation of him and his relatives to stop. Frank Stagg was bedridden for the rest of his time in this prison and suffered from acute kidney disease.

Hunger strike

In 1975 he was sent to Wakefield Prison , where he was again asked to work in prison and refused to do so; for this he was again placed in solitary confinement. On December 14, 1975, he and other prisoners went on hunger strike and they resisted repatriation requests in connection with the ceasefire between the IRA and the British government.

Stagg's demands were:

• an end to solitary confinement,
• no prison work,
• Repatriation to captivity in Ireland.

The British government did not accept any of the requests and he died on February 12, 1976 after 62 days of hunger strike.

burial

The funeral of Stagg caused considerable controversy between two of his brothers and the Irish Republicans who wanted to bury Frank Stagg in the Republican field in Ballina - as he wished, while the widow, his brother Emmet Stagg and the Irish government had him in the family cemetery buried in the same cemetery, but wanted to avoid Republican involvement at the funeral. When the Republicans were waiting for Stagg's body at Dublin Airport , the Irish government had meanwhile relocated the flight to Shannon Airport . From there the body was brought from Stagg to Ballina and buried near the family grave. To prevent Staag's coffin from being removed and the Republicans from burying him in the Republican burial ground in accordance with the deceased's wishes, the grave was covered with concrete. In November 1976, a group of Republicans tunneled under the concrete slab, removed the coffin, and placed it in the Republicans' burial ground.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Increased turnout in Bundoran to honor hunger strikers . SAOIRSE. September 1995. Retrieved October 29, 2007.
2. ↑ Tírghrá . National Commemoration Center, 2002, ISBN 0-9542946-0-2 , p. 186.
3. ↑ Man's denial on chemicals ; The Times ; October 25, 1973; pg2 Col F
4. ↑ Priest who 'raised ... ; The Times ; November 2, 1973; pg1 col E
5. ↑ Behind Closed Doors: Cabinet Confidential . RTÉ, January 2, 2007