Emmet Stagg

Emmet Stagg
Stagg, circa 2002
Minister of State
1994–1997	Transport, Energy and Communications
1993–1994	Environment
Teachta Dála
In office June 1997 – February 2016
Constituency	Kildare North
In office February 1987 – June 1997
Constituency	Kildare
Personal details
Born	(1944-10-01)1 October 1944 Hollymount, County Mayo, Ireland
Died	17 March 2024(2024-03-17) (aged 79) County Kildare, Ireland
Political party	Labour Party
Spouse	Mary Morris
Children	2
Relatives	Frank Stagg (brother)
Education	Ballinrobe CBS
Alma mater	Dublin 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, and as a Minister of State from January 1993 to November 1994 and from December 1994 to June 1997. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) from 1987 to 2016.

Early life

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. 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

Stagg 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. He then served as Labour front bench spokesperson in various portfolios, including Agriculture (1987–1989) and Social Welfare (1989–1992).

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 January 1993, in the Fianna Fáil–Labour Party coalition government formed after the 1992 general election, he was appointed as Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, with special responsibility for Housing and Urban Renewal. Labour left this government in November 1994. In December 1994, in the Rainbow coalition government, Stagg was appointed as Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Energy and Communications, serving until June 1997.

Stagg lost his seat at the 2016 general election, having served as a TD for 29 consecutive years.

Stagg 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.

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. 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.

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. 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.

Stagg died on 17 March 2024, at the age of 79.