Austin Stack proved a divisive figure in Republican circles

Austin Stack was blamed by many for the disaster that befell the German guns plan in Kerry, but he played a key role later in the first Dáil, writes Ryle Dwyer

IT SEEMED like the events in Kerry during the run up to the Easter Rebellion were one debacle after another. Some held Austin Stack responsible for failing to rescue Casement. “Austin was blamed by some for not trying to organise a rescue,” his wife Una later recalled. “I know he felt very sore about it. He always said his orders were definite, that no shot should be fired before the start of general hostilities on Easter Sunday and he knew well that any fracas that might take place in Tralee would frustrate all the plans made for the Rising,” she explained.

Despite the failure either to help Casement, or to contact the Aud in Tralee Bay, Stack was held in very high regard by leaders, like Éamon de Valera and Michael Collins.