» Mícheál Mac Donncha
Proinsias (Frank) Stagg, IRA Volunteer from Co. Mayo, died on hunger strike in Wakefield Prison, England on 12th February 1976, 45 years ago today. These are extracts from some of his prison letters as published in ‘Irish Voices from English Jails’ by the Prisoners Aid Committee, London 1979.
The trial
Just a few lines hoping to find you all in fairly good form at home. I do hope you were not too shocked by the savage sentences. As you know I was expecting it after I’d heard the old judge summing up. You could see the hate in his eyes before we were found guilty. He got very little satisfaction from me as he was passing sentence I stared him eye to eye. When he said ten years I just smiled and never blinked an eyelid.I see Emmet’s progressive government had a bit of trouble with security at their prisons. They will have to be a bit more careful who they are hiring out helicopters to.- 4 November 1973. (Emmet was his brother, a Labour Party TD and s