Gerry Adams apologised to former jail officer for IRA’s function in his father’s homicide after driving him to fulfill ‘chief’ of terror group in blacked-out van, court docket hears

Gerry Adams ‘apologised’ to a family for the IRA murder of their father after arranging a clandestine meeting with a senior member of the terror group, the High Court has been told. 

Prison officer Brian Stack was shot in the back of the head by a member of the IRA while attending a boxing event in Dublin in 1983. He was paralysed and died 18 months later.

His son, Austin, also a former prison officer, told a civil trial in London examining Adams’ alleged leadership of the IRA that he held a series of meetings with the veteran Republican in 2013 to obtain answers over his father’s murder.

In one, held at the Dáil Éireann – Irish parliament – the then-Sinn Fein president allegedly told Mr Stack and his brother, Oliver, that they were ‘very brave men to come and see me.’

Mr Stack, 56, said in a written witness statement that he felt this was an ‘attempt to intimidate me,’ adding: [It] was a strange opening comment from a man who presented himself as a politician and a man of peace.’

In July 2013, the brothers were told they would receive an ‘admission’ from the IRA about their father’s murder, the court was told.

They met Adams in Dublin and were driven together to Dundalk, near the Irish border, where they were ‘asked to climb into the back of a van with blacked-out windows,’ Mr Stack said.

He said the van ‘had been professionally fitted with plywood sheets to block out the back and side windows, and there was wooden sheeting in place to ensure that no one could see into the back through the van’s windscreen.’ 

Gerry Adams, 77, was confronted by a number of demonstrators as he arrived at London’s Royal Courts of Justice for the fourth day of his civil trial on Thursday

He added: ‘We entered the van and were plunged into darkness. It was evident that the van was a specially modified IRA transport vehicle.’

The men were driven to County Armagh – known as ‘bandit country’ during the Troubles because of its affiliation with the IRA – and met a leading paramilitary who confirmed the IRA was responsible for their father’s murder, Mr Stack’s statement said.

The IRA leader, who gave the name ‘John’, claimed he had been shot owing to his role in Portlaoise Prison, in the Republic of Ireland, which housed IRA prisoners and was said to be known for its ‘brutal regime.’

In 2013, Adams, 77, said: ‘On behalf of Sinn Féin I extend my regret at the killing of Brian.’

In an address to the Dáil in 2016, Adams said that the ‘shooting of Brian Stack was wrong, it was a grievous loss for his family and should never have happened.’

Giving evidence at the High Court, Mr Stack said: ‘Why would someone apologise for murders the IRA committed and the IRA expressly denied if you had nothing to do with it?’

Mr Adams’ lawyers claim he was a ‘facilitator’ of the meeting with an IRA member in his role at Sinn Fein.

Mr Stack added: ‘If I wanted answers the only place I could get answers was from someone who was senior in the IRA.

‘Adams said to us he had asked a friend of his to carry out an investigation in relation to my dad’s murder.

‘In my mind someone who asks someone to carry out an investigation is superior to that person.’

Brian Stack, a former chief prison officer at Portlaoise Prison in the Republic of Ireland, was murdered by the IRA in 1983 

Adams, pictured outside the High Court on Thursday, denies any role in three IRA car bomb attacks in England between 1973 and 1996

He said you don’t ‘just rock up’ to a meeting with the IRA, adding: ‘Adams was intimately connected and was a member of and had a deep leading and supervisory role in charge of the IRA for a number of years.

‘He was in a position to influence someone to carry out an investigation. That is what happened in 2013 and led me to believe he was a significant figure in the organisation.

‘Why apologise for something which the IRA carried out if you were not a member of that organisation? It does not make sense.’

Responding to a question from Adams’ barrister, Edward Craven KC, that Adams never said he was acting for the IRA or on behalf of the IRA at the meetings, Mr Stack said: ‘At all stages I thought he was acting on behalf of the IRA. 

‘The IRA and Sinn Fein are one. My belief was I was talking to someone in senior IRA leadership.’ 

Adams is being sued for ‘vindicatory’ damages of £1 by John Clark, a victim of the Old Bailey attack in 1973; Jonathan Ganesh, who was injured in the 1996 IRA attack at London’s Docklands and Barry Laycock, who was injured in the attack at Manchester’s Arndale Shopping Centre in the same year.

They allege Mr Adams was ‘directly responsible’ for IRA decisions to place the devices. Adams has always denied being a member of the IRA.

Earlier, the trial heard from former Royal Ulster Constabulary head of the Serious Crime Branch, Tim Hanley. 

He said he was privy to intelligence suggesting Adams ‘directed’ the Old Bailey bombing in 1973 and the Docklands bombing in 1996.

In his statement, he said: ‘The fact is, I’ve read thousands of intelligences documents, graded and corroborating, relating to the entire period of the Troubles, and I am completely satisfied that Adams held a senior leadership figure in the PIRA [Provisional IRA] throughout the Troubles.

‘All of those documents cannot be wrong.’

Adams denies any role in the bombings or membership of the IRA. He is expected to give evidence next week.

The trial continues.