TD calls for State apology for Eddie Fullerton murder following Brian Stack apology

Donegal TD Pádraig Mac Lochlainn has urged that the family of murdered Councillor Eddie Fullerton receive a State apology, after the government recently apologised to the family of prison officer Brian Stack.

Speaking in the Dáil, Mac Lochlainn referenced the State apology delivered to the Stack family, whose patriarch was shot in the neck at a boxing tournament in Dublin on 25 March 1983 and died 18 months later.

The Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, confirmed that the Provisional IRA was responsible for Stack’s killing and highlighted the need for clarity on the perpetrators.

Mac Lochlainn described the Fullerton case as a “litany of Garda failures”. Councillor Eddie Fullerton, the first Sinn Féin member elected to Donegal County Council in 1979, was murdered at his home in Cockhill Park, Buncrana on 25 May 1991 by the Ulster Defence Association, who broke in with a sledgehammer.

Sinn Féin has repeatedly called for an independent public inquiry, alleging collusion between loyalist paramilitaries and British security forces. Mac Lochlainn cited dismissed witness testimony, mishandled forensic evidence and delayed questioning of suspects, including a man later linked to the Castlerock and Greysteel massacres.

The TD called for “no equivocation” in acknowledging the wrongdoing and for the State to extend its apology to the Fullerton family.

Source: Donegal Daily. Photo: Michael Saffle / Pexels.