Tribunal told recruits were constantly ordered to go on runs and do press-ups for hours on end while being shouted at and berated.
A training session two days before an army apprentice killed himself was “a day of horror” akin to the harrowing scenes of the infamous movie by Stanley Kubrick, the Defence Forces Tribunal into historical claims of abuse has heard.
Eddie Gibbons, who was just 17 when he joined the Army Apprentice School in Devoy Barracks in Naas, in October 1989, said it was so surreal it resembled a scene from the Vietnam war movie.
The 1987 film is remembered for the performance of R Lee Ermey as the sadistic Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, who breaks US Marine Corps recruits with his relentless bullying and abuse.
Mr Gibbons said recruits were constantly ordered to go on runs and do press-ups for hours on end while being shouted at and berated.
The tribunal has already heard that, towards the end of that training session on June 20, 1991, apprentice Oliver Mullaney was ordered to sing nursery rhymes, dance with, and kiss other male recruits.
Mr Mullaney was just 20 months into his apprenticeship in the Defence Forces and was training to be a motor mechanic when he died on the evening of June 22, 1991.
Read full article by Neil Michael on the Irish Examiner website below.
https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/courtandcrime/arid-41871630
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