Austin Stack

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Austin Stack (December 7, 1879 – April 27, 1929) was an Irish revolutionary.

Austin Stack was born in Ballymullen, Tralee, County Kerry. He was educated at the Christian Brothers School in Tralee. At the age of fourteen he left school and became a clerk in a solicitor's office. A gifted Gaelic footballer, he captained the Kerry team to All-Ireland glory in 1904. He also served as President of the Kerry Gaelic Athletic Association County Board.

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. Although he was made aware that Casement was arrested and was being held in Tralee, he made no attempt to rescue Casement from Ballymullen Barracks at this time. District Inspector Kearney (RIC) treated Casement very well and made sure Stack was aware that Casement could so easily have been rescued, yet Stack refused to move. He (Stack) was arrested and sentenced to death for his involvement, however, this was later commuted to penal servitude for life. Stack was released under general amnesty in June 1917 and was elected as an abstenionist Sinn Féin Member of Parliament for Kerry West in the 1918 Westminster Election, becoming a Member of the 1st Dáil. He was automatically elected as an abstenionist member of the House of Commons of Southern Ireland and a Member of the 2nd Dáil as a Sinn Féin Teachta Dála for Kerry–Limerick West in the Irish elections, 1921.

He opposed the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, and took part in the subsequent Civil War. He was captured in 1923 and went on hunger strike for forty-one days before being released in July 1924.

He was elected a Member of the 3rd Dail at the 1922 general election and subsequent elections as a Anti-Treaty Sinn Fein TD for the Kerry constituency. When Eamon de Valera founded Fianna Fáil in 1926, Stack remained with Sinn Féin being re-elected to the Dáil in the 1927 general election.

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

Austin Stack Park in his hometown of Tralee, one of the Gaelic Athletic Association's stadiums, is named in his honour.

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Thomas O'Donnell	MP for Kerry West 1918 – 1922	Succeeded by Seat disestablished
Oireachtas
Preceded by New office	TD for Kerry West 1918–1921	Succeeded by Seat disestablished
Preceded by Arthur Griffith	Secretary of State for Home Affairs 1921-1922	Succeeded by Eamonn Duggan