The remarkable story of Mayo's Frank Stragg, three funerals and two burials

by Dr. Richard Martin

I WAS in Leigue Cemetery in Ballina on Valentine’s Day.

The 14th of February last. Fifty years after the death of Frank Stagg in Wakefield Prison, England, on February 12, 1976.

A commemoration was held in his honour and hundreds of republicans across the island made their way to Leigue Cemetery.

How did Frank Stagg die? The cause of death? He died on hunger strike - the weapon of last resort for the Republican movement. He endured 62 days of starvation before he passed. He weighed four stone in the finish.

Who was Frank Stagg? Frank Stagg was a Mayo man. From Robeen in Hollymount, in the early '70s he was the leader of an IRA unit in Coventry.

He was arrested along with others and charged with criminal damage and conspiracy to commit arson. He was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in jail in 1973.

Once imprisoned Frank Stagg had three demands. He believed that as a member of the IRA he was a political prisoner. His demands were an end to solitary confinement, no prison work and repatriation to a prison in Ireland.

It was the age old conflict. The Irish and British authorities saw IRA prisoners as criminals and treated them as such; the IRA volunteers saw themselves as soldiers and political prisoners.

Like the H blocks in 1981, neither side was prepared to give in and lose face.

The Price sisters, Hugh Feeney, Gerry Kelly and Michael Gaughan (from Ballina) and others were all in jail in England at the same time for differing offences.

They all went on hunger strikes simultaneously to achieve their goal of political status. They were all eventually force fed by prison staff - barbarically and inhumanely it must be said - to prevent their deaths.

The inevitable happened and Michael Gaughan died in 1974. The prison doctors fatally injured him when his lung was punctured by a force-feeding tube. He was only 23 years of age. Too young to die.

Gaughan's repatriation to Ireland and his resultant burial in the Republican plot in Leigue Cemetery in 1974 was a huge propaganda coup and morale booster for the Republican movement at the time.

The then FG/Labour government looked on in dismay and fury as thousands of Republicans across the island converged on Ballina for the funeral and burial.

The authorities were resolved never to allow it happen again. Sure enough two years later they found themselves in the same predicament.

It was Frank Stagg's dying wish to be laid to rest alongside his friend and fellow Mayo man Michael Gaughan.

Frank’s brother Emmet Stagg (who later became a Labour TD) was opposed to his burial in the Republican plot in Leigue Cemetery and wanted him buried in the family plot.

Most of his family (his mother, brothers and sisters) wanted his dying wish to be adhered to. His death did not just polarise and split the nation. It created a bitter divide in his own family. Such is the nature of Irish history over the centuries.

The state would not let Stagg’s coffin arrive in Dublin and allow a cortege wind its way slowly across the island to Leigue Cemetery and give the IRA a massive propaganda boost.

The Irish state saw themselves at war with the Provisional IRA and a threat to their authority. Which is true as the Provisional IRA didn’t recognise the institutions of the state.

The army, the gardaí, the courts of law, and the Oireachtas were all organs of the state and viewed with suspicion, contempt and hatred by Republicans.

Unfortunately, common sense did not prevail.

The state made the foolish decision of hijacking the body and not releasing it to his family and loved ones.

An Aer Lingus flight carrying Stagg's body to Ireland was diverted to Shannon Airport away from Dublin Airport.

The first ‘State’ funeral took place on Saturday, February 21, 1976. Stagg's body was brought by Special Branch to Hollymount for a funeral service and then afterwards on to Leigue Cemetery in Ballina.

The gardaí, along with Emmet Stagg, then buried him in an unmarked grave 70 yards from the Republican plot. Cemetery workers refused to carry out the burial which was done by the gardaí themselves.

The second funeral took place the following day on February 22. This was a Republican funeral without a body.

Thousands of Republican sympathisers from across the island converged on Leigue Cemetery and held a funeral ceremony in the graveyard. It was a recipe for chaos and disaster.

It’s not known exactly how many gardaí and military personnel were present in the cemetery that day. Hundreds in full riot gear. And armed. There were 50 garda personnel carriers and approximately 20 armoured military vehicles.

The state was determined not to give in. A riot broke out. The state forces held firm and the body remained in the unmarked grave. The IRA were forced to retreat and lie in wait for a more opportune moment.

After the second funeral, the cemetery was monitored by 24-hour armed garda surveillance for the next six months.

A hut was even built in the graveyard to provide shelter to the armed gardaí watching dead people trying to escape from graves. Not a great way to spend taxpayers money in my view.

After six months common sense prevailed and the gardaí left the graveyard. Before they went they disbanded the hut and poured six feet of concrete over the grave. Why? To make sure the IRA could not move Frank Stagg to the Republican plot.

Whatever he was or wasn’t, in my view that was a step too far, and a lasting dark mark on the government of the day.

However, the state made one fatal error (from their perspective). They didn’t buy the plot where Frank Stagg was buried. His brother George bought it along with the adjoining plot for the princely sum of £5.

The saga finally ended on November 5, 1977. The third and final funeral and second burial took place.

Six men (including his brother George) entered the cemetery in the dead of night and began digging in the adjacent empty plot where Frank Stagg was buried.

Once they were deep enough, they were able to exhume Frank Stagg's coffin by digging sideways, bypassing the poured concrete. By digging in an L - shape they avoided having to break through the concrete.

Frank Stagg was finally reinterred alongside Michael Gaughan in the Republican plot.

So there we are. Three funerals and two burials. A family and nation divided.

In my view, if Frank Stagg wanted to be buried in the Republican plot in Leigue Cemetery that was his decision and his alone and it should have been respected. Whether I agreed with his politics or not is immaterial.

The actions of the state over that period caused huge needless hurt to the Stagg family and were vindictive and ultimately counterproductive. How can it be that a man has three headstones and was buried twice in the same cemetery?

In acting the way they did they created a story that will be told and retold over the generations and brought greater attention to his death and cause.

The reality is that in a normal society the likes of Stagg and Gaughan would never see the outside of a prison never mind the inside.

Why were the gardaí and state apparatus so determined to deny Frank Stagg’s final request? It’s simple.

Over the course of the Troubles from 1969 to 1998, 23 serving gardaí were murdered by various different republican groupings.

When it’s viewed from that perspective it’s not hard to see why some serving gardaí and army personnel bore such animosity and hatred towards members of the Provisional IRA and Sinn Féin during that time.

What of the commemoration itself, 50 years on?

I drove to Ballina that day accompanied by Alison Laredo.

A huge crowd had gathered at the graveyard entrance for a march and procession to the Republican plot. I met Joe McHale before the commemoration started. Dr. Spin he calls me. Ah well. He might be right.

There were roughly a thousand republicans there from all across the island. And myself. And no gardaí. And no army personnel. All changed, changed utterly.

Time heals all. Ireland has moved on.

A bitter cold and biting wind swept the cemetery, and huge swarms of people gathered around the Republican plot for the speeches and music.

Gerry Kelly, an icon of the Republican movement, gave the main address. A man who is revered and respected within the republican movement across the island. George Stagg gave the final address wearing a Hollymount GAA hat.

I watched the proceedings from afar in a pensive and reflective mood. I thought of Stagg and Gaughan and the immense suffering, brutality and torture they endured for their beliefs.

Shivering alongside a headstone, my mind wandered in the graveyard and I thought about another pair of honourable Mayo men. Henry Byrne and John Morley. They were murdered by the INLA on July 7, 1980.

The two men were serving gardaí. John Morley was a detective and Mayo footballing legend. The INLA gang robbed the Bank of Ireland in Ballaghaderreen and Byrne and Morley were murdered as they pursued them. Two honourable, decent Mayo men murdered in cold blood.

I’m not sure what that bank robbery achieved only endless hurt, pain and suffering for those men’s families. It certainly didn’t advance the cause of Irish freedom and the ending of partition.

Michael Joyce is a solicitor from Ballyhaunis. One of 12 children. The son of Tommie Joyce, the local GP - a close friend and confidant of Sean Flanagan.

He has spent his whole life practicing law in Cork city. He’s retired now. An extremely close personal friend of mine, along with his son Eoin - a hugely successful solicitor in his own right.

He was the childhood best friend of Henry Byrne from Knock. Even now, he still carries the huge hurt and pain of that fateful day. We’ve discussed it once and only once.

We meet in the Gresham Hotel before every big Mayo match in Croke Park. A close school friend of his from Castlebar - Paddy Quinn from New Antrim Street - is often in his company. Paddy wears his father’s 1936 medal on a chain around his neck.

A very deep and spiritual man who has devoted his life to charitable services. A day out in Croke Park is never the same if I don’t meet them beforehand.

Incidentally, John Morley’s son Gordon went on to represent Mayo in the late '90s. What would he have given for his father to watch him represent his county? A proud father watching a talented son.

Gordon went on to to win an All-Ireland club medal with Salthill in 2006. The bloodlines will always win out.

Were the deaths of Gaughan, Stagg, Byrne and Morley needless, preventable deaths? Or did they all have to die so that we could get to where we are today? I don’t know.

I don’t have the answer to those questions. Our history is too complex. What I do know is that we can never go back there again.

Four Mayo men of impeccable moral fibre and character. All dead before their time, leaving devastated families cloaked in grief. This was the heartbreak of the Troubles.

Rose Conway-Walsh’s mother Phil passed away last year. I went to the removal in Kilcoyne’s Funeral Home. Ten metres ahead of me in the queue, the entire Dillon office waited in line to pay their respects as a collective. That image has stayed with me. The contrast. Of now and then.

Ireland has changed for the better. People respect others with opposing views and opinions. The bitterness, anger, resentment of the past is in the rear view mirror.

We can come together, offer the hand of friendship and grieve the dead.

This is the beauty of the peace process.