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Emmet Stagg

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Emmet Stagg
Stagg, circa 2002
Minister of State
1994–1997Transport, Energy and Communications
1993–1994Environment
Teachta Dála
In office
June 1997 – February 2016
ConstituencyKildare North
In office
February 1987 – June 1997
ConstituencyKildare
Personal details
Born1 October 1944
Hollymount, County Mayo, Ireland
Died17 March 2024(2024-03-17) (aged 79)
Political partyLabour Party
SpouseMary Morris
RelationsFrank Stagg (brother)
Children2
EducationBallinrobe CBS
Alma materDublin Institute of Technology

Emmet Stagg (1 October 1944 – 17 March 2024) was an Irish Labour Party politician who served as Labour Party Chief Whip from 2007 to 2016, Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Energy and Communications from 1994 to 1997 and Minister of State at the Department of the Environment from 1993 to 1994. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) from 1987 to 2016.[1]

Early life

Emmet Stagg with Eamon Gilmore
Emmet Stagg with Eamon Gilmore

Stagg was born at Hollymount, County Mayo, and was one of thirteen siblings raised by parents, including his brother Frank Stagg. Stagg described his childhood in Mayo as being gripped by poverty and by the rule of the Catholic Church.[2] He was educated at Ballinrobe CBS school and Kevin Street College of Technology. He worked as a medical technologist at Trinity College Dublin before entering full-time politics.

Political career

He was elected in 1979 to represent the Celbridge area on Kildare County Council for the Labour Party, serving until 1993. He was elected again in 1999, serving until 2003. Stagg was first elected to Dáil Éireann at the 1987 general election for the Kildare constituency.[3] He then served as Labour front bench spokesperson on a number of areas, including Agriculture (1987–89) and Social Welfare (1989–92).

During the 1980s and early 1990s, Stagg was a prominent figure within the internal politics of the Labour Party, being viewed along with Michael D. Higgins and Joe Higgins as one of the leaders of the left-wing faction within the party opposed to coalition with Fine Gael, and as a prominent opponent of the then party leader Dick Spring. He opposed the expulsion of Joe Higgins and Militant Tendency at the 1989 conference, and in the early 1990s he considered leaving the party and joining the newly formed Democratic Left, though he ultimately chose to stay with the party. In the Fianna Fáil–Labour Party coalition government formed after the 1992 general election, he became Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, with special responsibility for Housing and Urban Renewal.

Stagg was appointed Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Energy and Communications in 1994, in the newly formed Rainbow Coalition Government.

He lost his seat at the 2016 general election,[3] having served as a TD for 29 consecutive years.[4]

He was the Labour Party candidate for Kildare North at the 2020 general election. At age 75, he was the oldest candidate in the entire general election, but was not elected.[2]

Phoenix Park scandal

In 1994, while Minister of State, Stagg became the subject of a major press scandal after Gardaí had found him the previous November loitering in an area of Dublin's Phoenix Park used by male prostitutes. He was questioned by the Gardaí but no charges were filed against him.[5][6][7] According to The Independent, public anger was largely focused on the member of the Gardaí who leaked details to the media despite no crime being committed.[8]

Personal life and death

Emmet Stagg's brother Frank Stagg was a Provisional Irish Republican Army member, who died in a British prison in 1976 while on hunger strike.[5] Emmett and his brothers quarrelled over whether Frank should be buried with his family, or in a dedicated "Republican" plot. The resulting dispute, into which the Irish government directly intervened, escalated into mayhem that resulted in the body of Frank Stagg being buried three separate times.[9][10]

Stagg died on 17 March 2024, aged 79.[11]

References

  1. ^ "Emmet Stagg". Oireachtas Members Database. Archived from the original on 11 July 2019. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
  2. ^ a b Hutton, Brian (7 February 2020). "Election 2020: Candidates born half a century apart share concerns for future". Irish Times. Retrieved 11 February 2020.
  3. ^ a b "Emmet Stagg". ElectionsIreland.org. Archived from the original on 20 May 2009. Retrieved 3 November 2009.
  4. ^ "Election 2016 - Kildare North". RTÉ News. Archived from the original on 28 February 2016. Retrieved 28 February 2016.
  5. ^ a b Alan Murdoch (9 March 1994). "Irish minister set to survive scandal". The Independent. Archived from the original on 5 November 2012. Retrieved 12 October 2009.
  6. ^ Kevin Myers (26 January 2006). "An Irishman's Diary". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 21 November 2011. Retrieved 3 January 2008. the real turning point in Ireland came when government minister Emmet Stagg was not summarily sacked after coming to Garda attention while loitering in an area of the Phoenix Park used by male prostitutes
  7. ^ John Downing (25 September 2005). "Labour is taken to book". Irish Examiner. Archived from the original on 17 June 2006. Retrieved 3 January 2008. the controversy surrounding then-Minister of State, Emmet Stagg, in 1994 when Gardaí apprehended him in dubious circumstances in The Phoenix Park
  8. ^ "Irish minister set to survive scandal". Independent.co.uk. 23 October 2011. Archived from the original on 24 September 2017. Retrieved 20 September 2017.
  9. ^ "The deaths of Michael Gaughan and Frank Stagg". Archived from the original on 18 January 2020. Retrieved 12 February 2020.
  10. ^ "Frank Stagg's Three Funerals". rte.ie. RTE. 8 November 2017. Archived from the original on 7 August 2019. Retrieved 7 August 2019.
  11. ^ Fitzgerald, Cormac (17 March 2024). "Former long-serving Labour TD Emmet Stagg dies age 79". TheJournal.ie. Retrieved 17 March 2024.
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