Life of IRA hunger striker recalled in North Mayo as Sinn Féin speak of a united Ireland getting closer
Hollymount native Frank Stagg was remembered in his native Mayo on Saturday, marking the 50th anniversary of his death while on hunger strike in a UK prison.
A crowd estimated at over 2,000 people from across Ireland gathered at Leigue Cemetery in Ballina to mark the occasion.
The commemoration, organised by Mayo Sinn Féin, saw the crowd join in a piper-led procession to the Republican plot before standing together to commemorate the life and death of Frank Stagg.
Despite bitterly cold winds, freezing temperatures and even some light snowfall, those present listened intently as speakers recounted his life, his sacrifice, and the wider history of hunger strikes in Ireland.
During the ceremony, family members, Seán and Seamus Stagg performed a selection of slow airs, while Tim McInerney read the 1916 Proclamation of Independence.
Sinn Féin MLA Gerry Kelly delivered the oration, and Mayo Sinn Féin TD Rose Conway-Walsh addressed the crowd along with party councillor Gerry Murray.
Poems were recited, a roll of honour was read out commemorating the 50th anniversary of the passing of other republican volunteers, and the crowd held their signs, tricolours, and black flags of remembrance throughout.
The Republican Graveyard Plot in Leigue Cemetery, Ballina, County Mayo, on the day of Frank Stagg's 50th anniversary commemoration.
Frank Stagg was 34 years old when he died on February 12, 1976, in Wakefield Prison after 62 days on hunger strike.
Born in Hollymount, County Mayo, he moved to England at the age of 19 in search of work.
While living there, he witnessed the escalation of the Troubles across the North of Ireland and became politically active, joining Sinn Féin in Luton.
In 1973, he was arrested and convicted on charges of conspiracy to commit arson, receiving a ten-year prison sentence.
His death came during his third hunger strike. Frank Stagg had used his body as a form of protest on two former occasions in pursuit of repatriation to a prison in the North of Ireland, an end to solitary confinement, and access to education rather than prison labour.
Following his death, Frank Stagg wished to be buried beside his fellow republican Michael Gaughan, a Ballina native who died on hunger strike on June 3, 1974, aged 24, in Parkhurst Prison.
However, when his remains were being returned to Ireland, the then Fine Gael-Labour coalition Government, led by Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave, intervened, and the plane carrying his coffin was diverted from Dublin to Shannon Airport, where the authorities took custody of his coffin.
Frank Stagg’s remains were taken to Mayo under heavy security and he was subsequently buried in Leigue Cemetery, but not alongside Mr Gaughan, in direct opposition to his expressed wishes.
Following his burial, gardai established a 24-hour watch over the grave to prevent his body from being exhumed. When this watch was removed, the state had concrete poured over the grave to prevent access.
Just under two years later, his brother George Stagg, along with five other men, exhumed the coffin and reinterred Frank Stagg with Michael Gaughan, fulfilling his final request.
Gerry Kelly MLA delivering the oration in front of a 2,000 strong crowd at the commemoration of Frank Stagg.
At the commemoration on Saturday, the oration was delivered by Gerry Kelly MLA, who had been on hunger strike alongside Frank Stagg in 1974.
Drawing on his own time in prison, Mr Kelly recounted the story of Frank Stagg’s life, his imprisonment, his hunger strikes, and the circumstances surrounding his burial.
Mr Kelly himself was one of ten republicans convicted at Winchester Crown Court in 1973, receiving two life sentences plus 20 years.
During his imprisonment, Mr Kelly undertook a 205-day hunger strike seeking repatriation to a prison in Ireland. During that protest, he was force-fed 167 times.
Addressing the crowd, he described the “brutal assaults” involved in force-feeding and explained that it had taken him many years to be able to speak publicly or write about what he endured.
Speaking of Frank Stagg’s legacy, alongside that of Michael Gaughan’s and the ten Republicans who died on hunger strike in 1981, Mr Kelly said they were all men who led from the front and stood up for ordinary people with integrity and courage.
“He [Frank] was truly inspirational, and I am proud to have been his comrade," he added.
Speaking after the commemoration, Mr Kelly reflected on the importance of remembering Frank Stagg not just as a figure of the past, but in the context of today’s political landscape.
“He was a huge inspiration for many people, and the issue of hunger strikes goes back in Irish history a long time,” he explained.
He [Frank] was truly inspirational, and I am proud to have been his comrade
He explained that hunger strikes were a form of protest used as a last resort by those with no platform or power, who risked their own lives as a demonstration of integrity and conviction, a weapon of the powerless against the powerful.
He said Frank Stagg’s decision to undertake three hunger strikes demonstrated the depth of his beliefs and commitment to the cause he believed in.
“There won’t be many people who do that [go on hunger strike] in their life, but the people who do, do it - there’s a sincerity in them,” he said.
He also criticised the treatment of Frank Stagg by the Irish Government, describing the physical and emotional toll on both him and his family as appalling.
“As a human being, look at what he was prepared to do. I think that has inspired many people who believe in right from wrong and who believe in justice,
“This is an ordinary person who is prepared to go on hunger strike and, if necessary, to die, not wanting to die, to show others that their cause is true.”
Mr Kelly’s own decision to join the Republican movement came after the outbreak of violence in Belfast in 1969.
“People were left homeless, people were killed, there was sectarianism, there was a Government using all its force and militarism on ordinary working class people,” he said, noting that he had been raised in a peaceful household and that taking up arms was not a decision made lightly.
“There was a foreign army on our streets, and I said the only way to deal with military occupation is to fight them in a military way,
“It is almost as straightforward as that - it is still a hard decision to make, because you know if you join an army, there’s things you would not normally do in an ordinary life that you may have to do,” he said.
Asked about the current movement for a united Ireland, and in light of President Connolly’s strong support for a referendum on Irish unity, Mr Kelly said he believes the process is closer now than ever.
“For Catherine Connolly to say [that] is a very important statement. I think we are closer now to a united Ireland than we have ever been. I know people may have said that at different places, but there is a more scientific way to look at it,” he explained.
“We are the biggest party in the island of Ireland, more and more people, especially young people, are coming to us, and I think we are on the way to a united Ireland.”
Karen Gallagher, Secretary for Mayo Sinn Féin , holding a wreath for the grave of Frank Stagg at the commemoration event in Leigue Cemetery.
Addressing the crowd at Leigue Cemetery on Saturday, Mayo TD Deputy Conway-Walsh reflected on Frank Stagg’s resistance and its wider significance.
“He was a political prisoner who resisted criminalisation. His actions were driven by a conviction that Ireland should be self-determined and free,
“He did not want to die, yet he was willing to use his own body as a final means of resistance,” she said.
“The raw courage of those who died on hunger strike is only known to them, and the pain of watching them die is only known to the families and to those who love them.”
Deputy Conway-Walsh noted the commemoration honoured all who died for the republican movement and for Irish unity, including Frank Stagg, Michael Gaughan, and Seán ‘Jack’ McNeela, a Ballycroy native who died in 1940 after 55 days on hunger strike.
“Today Mayo remembers all of our patriot dead and in particular those who have died on hunger strike,
“We can never ease the pain of the past, but we can honour the profound legacy that they have left us. The hunger strikes were costly, they were brutal, but they were transformational,” she said.
She highlighted how the hunger strikes had reshaped the republican movement and helped carve a path toward the reunification of Ireland.
“They reshaped the republican strategy, they brought international attention to the struggle for Irish freedom, and they brought political pressure on the British Government. They led us to peace, and they led us to the Good Friday Agreement,
“Now they lead us to the reunification of our country, to Irish unity. We must now realise fully the vision of Frank and of his comrades. We must work harder to bring about a new and united Ireland,” she told the crowd.
'Mayo Remembers' - The Black Flag Vigil held in Ballina by the Humbert Memorial on February 12 - exactly 50 years to the day of Frank Stagg's death.
In addition to Saturday’s events at Leigue Cemetery, a Black Flag Vigil was held on Thursday evening, February 12, at the Humbert Monument in Ballina, marking exactly 50 years to the day of Frank Stagg’s death.
A crowd gathered at the monument to hear addresses from George Stagg and Sinn Féin Cllr Gerry Murray.
Speaking on behalf of his family, Mr Stagg thanked those present for coming out in memory of his brother.
“50 years on, the care and the dignity and commitment shown by people such as yourselves in remembering Frank is telling us something very powerful,
“That his sacrifice is not forgotten and that the memory of his sacrifice can be a powerful act in itself - an act of resistance,” he said.
He spoke about the ongoing impact of loss on his family: “Time does not dull the loss of Frank, it only teaches us how to carry it. Go raibh míle maith agat from the members of the Stagg family.”
Mr Stagg then shared his brother’s final message.
“He spoke of holding firm, of staying united, of never losing sight of why the struggle existed in the first place. ‘We are a risen people, this time we will not be driven to the gutter - even if that should mean dying for justice, the fight must go on - Let peace and justice be my memorial’,” he said, quoting his brother.
He recounted the final words Frank spoke to his mother and his wife on February 12, 1976: ‘So this then is how a hunger strike ends.’
“At that moment the Brits found out, in the words of Bobby Sands, ‘That they have nothing in their entire imperial arsenal that could ever break the spirit of a single Irishman, who did not want to be broken’,” Mr Stagg said to the crowd.
After the vigil, Mr Stagg said that he had been deeply moved by the turnout in Ballina and across Ireland.
“These are people coming out on a cold, wet evening, a freezing evening, to stand around for an hour to remember Frank - I think it’s wonderful,” he said.
Asked what he would like the younger generations to understand about his brother and the republican movement, Mr Stagg pointed again to his brother’s final message.
“‘I want my memorial to be peace with justice’ - that would be his legacy,” he said.
He explained that Frank’s legacy extended beyond his personal sacrifice, shaping how the republican movement adapted in the years that followed, particularly through education.
“I am convinced, in my own mind, from the hunger strikes of Michael Gaughan and Frank, sprung other protests in prisons leading up to the ten hunger strikes in Long Kesh who died,” he said.
‘I want my memorial to be peace with justice’ - that would be his legacy
Although the hunger strikers did not win all the rights they were demanding, they did secure the right to education, a development that Mr Stagg believes had a lasting impact on the republican movement.
“They set about educating themselves in a serious way. After the hunger strikers had died, the prisoners went back into their cells and set up schools at every level - national, secondary and university,” Mr Stagg explained.
“They taught themselves mainly politics. When the peace process came, the prison doors were opened, the prisoners came out, and republican prisoners were trained up politicians,
“Sinn Féin are now by far the largest party on the island, north and south. I think that is the legacy of Michael Gaughan and Frank,
“I think it sprung from there that the republican movement learnt a new way of doing things. You didn’t have to always be fighting with guns, it could be done in other ways,” he explained.
Mr Stagg then referenced the 1981 by-election in Fermanagh-South Tyrone, which saw Bobby Sands elected as an MP just shy of a month before his death.
“I think that is the big legacy of the hunger strikers, was the peace process came from it,” Mr Stagg added.
Mayo Sinn Féin secretary Karen Gallagher thanked everyone who attended the weekend’s events and highlighted the party’s ongoing commitment to remembering Frank Stagg.
“Mayo Sinn Féin are absolutely honoured for the crowd that turned out to remember Frank with great pride and respect,
“His legacy lives on through all of the Republicans here in Mayo. We remember with immense pride Frank’s fight for a united Ireland, alongside Michael Gaughan and Seán McNeela, and we continue to fight for a united Ireland,” she said.