View source for Austin Stack

{{Hatnote|Austin Stack is also the name of the son of [[Shooting of Brian Stack|Brian Stack, who was shot by the IRA]] in 1983.}}
{{Short description|Irish republican (1879–1929)}}
{{Use Hiberno-English|date=October 2021}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2021}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name          = Austin Stack
| image         = Austin Stack, circa 1920s (cropped).jpg
| imagesize     = 
| office        = [[Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration|Minister for Home Affairs]]
| president     = [[Éamon de Valera]]
| term_start    = 22 August 1921
| term_end      = 9 January 1922
| predecessor   = [[Arthur Griffith]]
| successor     = [[Eamonn Duggan]]
| office1       = [[Teachta Dála]]
| term_start1   = [[1923 Irish general election|August 1923]]
| term_end1     = [[June 1927 Irish general election|June 1927]]
| constituency1 = [[Kerry (Dáil constituency)|Kerry]]
| term_start2   = [[1921 Irish elections|May 1921]]
| term_end2     = [[1923 Irish general election|August 1923]]
| constituency2 = [[Kerry–Limerick West (Dáil constituency)|Kerry–Limerick West]]
| term_start3   = [[1918 Irish general election|December 1918]]
| term_end3     = [[1921 Irish elections|May 1921]]
| constituency3 = [[West Kerry (UK Parliament constituency)|Kerry West]]
| birth_name    = Augustine Mary Moore Stack
| birth_date    = {{birth date|1879|12|7|df=y}}
| birth_place   = [[Tralee]], [[County Kerry]], Ireland 
| death_date    = {{death date and age|1929|4|27|1879|12|7|df=y}}
| death_place   = [[Dublin]], Ireland
| nationality   = [[Irish people|Irish]] 
| party         = [[Sinn Féin]]
| spouse        = Winifred Cassidy<br />{{small|(m. 1925)}}
| children      =
| education     =
| alma_mater    = 
| allegiance    = {{Ubl|[[Irish Republican Brotherhood]]|[[Irish Volunteers]]|[[Irish Republican Army (1919–1922)|Irish Republican Army]]|[[Irish Republican Army (1922–1969)|Anti-Treaty IRA]]}}
| branch        = 
| unit          = 
| serviceyears  = 1916–1922 
| battles       = {{Ubl|[[Easter Rising]]|[[Irish War of Independence]]|[[Irish Civil War]]}}
| rank          = 
|module={{Infobox Gaelic games player
|image          =
|name           = 
|height         = 
|sport          = Gaelic football
|code           = Football
|county         = Kerry 
|province       = Munster 
|club           = [[Tralee GAA|Tralee]]
|clyears        = 
|clposition     = 
|clapps(points) =
|clcounty       = 
|clprovince     =
|clallireland   =
|counties       = [[Kerry county football team|Kerry]]
|icyears        = 1896–1905
|icposition     = 
|icapps(points) = 
|icprovince     = 
|icallireland   = 1
|nfl            =
|allstars       = 
|clupdate       = 
|icupdate       = 
|}}}}
[[File:Piece 207-179; Austin Stack (1922).pdf|page=9|thumb|right|alt=British Army military intelligence file for Austin Stack|British Army military intelligence file for Austin Stack]]
'''Augustine Mary Moore Stack''' (7 December 1879 – 27 April 1929) was an [[Irish republicanism|Irish republican]] and politician who served as [[Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration|Minister for Home Affairs]] from 1921 to 1922. He was a [[Teachta Dála]] (TD) from 1918 to 1927.<ref name=oireachtas_db>{{cite web|url=https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/members/member/Austin-Stack.D.1919-01-21/|title=Austin Stack|work=Oireachtas Members Database|access-date=6 January 2010|archive-date=8 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181108184408/https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/members/member/Austin-Stack.D.1919-01-21|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Early life==
Stack was born in Ballymullen, [[Tralee]], [[County Kerry]], to William Stack, an attorney's clerk, and Nanette O'Neill.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/details/3e9fac0488149|title=Baptismal record|website=IrishGenealogy.ie|access-date=27 April 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/details-civil/827c311002537|title=General Registrar's Office|website=IrishGenealogy.ie|access-date=27 April 2017|archive-date=22 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210922200657/https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/captcha.jsp|url-status=live}}</ref> He was educated at the [[Congregation of Christian Brothers|Christian Brothers]] School in Tralee.<ref name=dib>{{cite web|url=https://www.dib.ie/biography/stack-austin-a8231|title=Stack, Austin|work=[[Dictionary of Irish Biography]]|last=Gaughan|first=J. Anthony|access-date=8 January 2022}}</ref> At the age of fourteen, he left school and became a clerk in a solicitor's office. A gifted [[Gaelic football]]er, he captained the [[Kerry county football team|Kerry]] team to [[All-Ireland Senior Football Championship|All-Ireland SFC]] victory in [[1904 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship final|1904]]. He also served as President of the [[Gaelic Athletic Association]]'s Kerry County Board.

==Activism==
He became politically active in 1908 when he joined the [[Irish Republican Brotherhood]]. In 1916, as commandant of the Kerry Brigade of the [[Irish Volunteers]], he made preparations for the landing of arms by [[Roger Casement]]. He was made aware that Casement was arrested on Easter Saturday and was being held in Tralee. He made no attempt to rescue him from [[Ballymullen Barracks]].

Stack was arrested and sentenced to death for his involvement in the Rising; however, this was later commuted to [[penal labour|penal servitude]] for life. Imprisoned at [[HM Prison Dartmoor]] Stack was in the company of senior leaders of the rebellion: [[Éamon de Valera]], [[Harry Boland]] and [[Thomas Ashe]]. Stack was a leader of Irish Republican prisoners and led several [[hunger strike]]s (including one at [[Dundalk Gaol]]) in resistance to being treated as criminals.<ref>{{cite book |last=Brennan |first=Robert |author-link= |date=1950 |title=Allegiance |url= |location=Dublin |publisher=Brown and Nolan Ltd. |page=158 |isbn=}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Macardle |first=Dorothy |author-link= |date=1965 |title=The Irish Republic |url= |location=New York |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |pages=202, 229 |isbn=}}</ref> He was released under general amnesty in June 1917 and was elected as an abstentionist [[Sinn Féin]] [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|MP]] for [[West Kerry (UK Parliament constituency)|Kerry West]] at the [[1918 Irish general election|1918 Westminster election]], becoming a [[Members of the 1st Dáil|member of the 1st Dáil]]. He was elected unopposed as an abstentionist member of the [[Parliament of Southern Ireland#House of Commons|House of Commons of Southern Ireland]] and a [[Members of the 2nd Dáil|member of the 2nd Dáil]] as a Sinn Féin [[Teachta Dála|TD]] for [[Kerry–Limerick West (Dáil constituency)|Kerry–Limerick West]] at the [[1921 Irish elections|1921 elections]].<ref name=elecs_irl>{{cite web|url=http://electionsireland.org/candidate.cfm?ID=1021|title=Austin Stack|work=ElectionsIreland.org|access-date=6 January 2010|archive-date=22 February 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110222072319/http://electionsireland.org/candidate.cfm?ID=1021|url-status=live}}</ref>

Stack, as part of his role as [[Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration|Minister for Home Affairs]], was responsible for the creation and administration of the [[Dáil Courts]].<ref>Macardle, p. 503</ref> These were courts run by IRA in parallel and opposition to the judicial system being run by the British government. The IRA and Sinn Féin was highly successful in both getting the civilian population of Ireland to use the courts and accept their rulings. The success of this initiative gave Sinn Féin a large boost in legitimacy and supported their goals in creating a "counter-state" within Ireland as part of their overarching goals in the War of Independence.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://treaty.nationalarchives.ie/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Stack.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=5 January 2019 |archive-date=24 April 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180424174838/http://treaty.nationalarchives.ie/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Stack.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.historyireland.com/20th-century-contemporary-history/revolutionary-justice-the-dill-eireann-courts/|title=Revolutionary Justice - the Dáil Eireann Courts|date=24 January 2013|access-date=5 January 2019|archive-date=6 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190106010331/https://www.historyireland.com/20th-century-contemporary-history/revolutionary-justice-the-dill-eireann-courts/|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Frank O'Connor]], later a republican colleague in the civil war, considered him a failure as home affairs minister for an unrealistic attitude to overseeing a ministry in constrained circumstances – a complaint many of his cabinet colleagues made.<ref>Frank O'Connor (1966), ''The Big Fellow'' (Dublin, Clonmore & Reynolds), pp. 89–90</ref>

He opposed the 1921 [[Anglo-Irish Treaty]] and took part in the subsequent [[Irish Civil War|Civil War]]. In the shadow republican government established in late 1922 he was appointed minister of finance.<ref>[https://www.nli.ie/sites/default/files/2022-12/nli-revealing-history-austin-stack.pdf 'Revealing History: Austin Stack, Sportsman, Militant, Political Prisoner']. National Library of Ireland, undated. Retrieved 29 May 2025</ref> He remained secretary of Sinn Féin.<ref>Dorothy Macardle (1951). ''The Irish Republic'' (Dublin, Irish Press), p. 755.</ref> He was captured on 14 April 1923 and went on hunger strike for forty-one days before being released along with approximately 15,000 Sinn Féin and IRA prisoners in July 1924.<ref>{{cite book |last=Coogan |first=Tim |date=2002 |title=The IRA |location=New York |publisher=St. Martins Press |page=39 |isbn=0-312-29416-6}}</ref>

==Dáil==
He was elected to the [[Third Dáil]] at the [[1922 Irish general election|1922 general election]] and subsequent elections as an [[Sinn Féin|Anti-Treaty Sinn Féin]] TD for the [[Kerry (Dáil constituency)|Kerry constituency]]. When [[Éamon de Valera]] founded [[Fianna Fáil]] in 1926, Stack remained with Sinn Féin being re-elected to the Dáil at the [[June 1927 Irish general election|June 1927 general election]]. He did not contest the [[September 1927 Irish general election|September 1927 general election]].

==Personal life==
In 1925, he married Winifred (Una) Gordon {{nee|Cassidy}} (died 1950),<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/details-civil/63a60a6765831|title=General Registrar's Office|website=IrishGenealogy.ie|access-date=27 April 2017|archive-date=22 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210922200657/https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/captcha.jsp|url-status=live}}</ref> the widow of a [[Royal Irish Constabulary]] district inspector, Patrick Gordon (1870–1912).<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.helensfamilytrees.com/gorg07.htm|title=Helen's Family Trees - GORDON - gor07.htm|website=www.helensfamilytrees.com|access-date=2017-04-27|archive-date=27 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170427193251/http://www.helensfamilytrees.com/gorg07.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

Stack's health never recovered after his [[hunger strike]] and he died in a [[Dublin]] hospital on 27 April 1929, aged 49.

==Honours==
At the time of his death a pamphlet was issued to commemorate his dedication to the cause of Irish freedom: "...Austin Stack, a man who bore and dared and suffered, remaining through it all and at the worst, the captain of his own soul...The force of England, of the English Slave State, might try coercion, as they did in many times. It made no difference. He went his way, suffered their will, and stood his ground doggedly, smiling now and again. His determination out-stood theirs because it had a deeper foundation and a higher aim. Compromise, submission, the slave marks, did not and could not exist for him as touching himself, or the Cause for which he worked and fought, lived and died."<ref>Coogan, p. 219-220</ref>

[[Austin Stack Park]] in his home town of Tralee, one of the Gaelic Athletic Association's stadiums, is named in his honour, as is the [[Austin Stacks GAA]] [[Hurling]] and [[Gaelic football]] club.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{cite TIWW |article=Stack, Augustine |page=237}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-par|uk}}
{{s-bef|before = [[Thomas O'Donnell (Irish nationalist politician)|Thomas O'Donnell]]}}
{{s-ttl|title  = [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] for [[West Kerry (UK Parliament constituency)|Kerry West]]
       |years  = 1918–1922}}
{{s-non|reason = Constituency abolished}}
{{s-par|ie/oi}}
{{s-new|constituency}}
{{s-ttl|title  = [[Teachta Dála]] for [[West Kerry (UK Parliament constituency)|Kerry West]]
       |years  = 1918–1921}}
{{s-non|reason = Constituency abolished}}
{{s-off}}
{{s-bef|before = [[Arthur Griffith]]}}
{{s-ttl|title  = [[Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration|Minister for Home Affairs]]
       |years  = 1921–1922}}
{{s-aft|after  = [[Eamonn Duggan]]}}
{{s-end}}
{{Kerry–Limerick West (Dáil constituency)/TDs}}
{{Kerry (Dáil constituency)/TDs}}
{{3rd Ministry of Dáil Éireann}}
{{Ministers for Justice of Ireland}}
{{IRB}}
{{Kerry Football Team 1903}}
{{Kerry Football Team 1904}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stack, Austin}}
[[Category:1879 births]]
[[Category:1929 deaths]]
[[Category:All-Ireland–winning captains (football)]]
[[Category:Early Sinn Féin TDs]]
[[Category:Irish Republican Army (1919–1922) members]]
[[Category:Irish Republican Army (1922–1969) members]]
[[Category:Irish sportsperson-politicians]]
[[Category:Kerry County Board administrators]]
[[Category:Kerry inter-county Gaelic footballers]]
[[Category:Members of the 1st Dáil]]
[[Category:Members of the 2nd Dáil]]
[[Category:Members of the 3rd Dáil]]
[[Category:Members of the 4th Dáil]]
[[Category:Members of the 5th Dáil]]
[[Category:Members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood]]
[[Category:Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Kerry constituencies (1801–1922)]]
[[Category:Ministers for justice of Ireland]]
[[Category:People from Tralee]]
[[Category:People of the Irish Civil War (Anti-Treaty side)]]
[[Category:Politicians from County Kerry]]
[[Category:Politicians imprisoned during the Irish revolutionary period]]
[[Category:Sportspeople from Tralee]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1918–1922]]