A non-commissioned officer broke down at the Defence Forces Tribunal as he recalled seeing the body of Oliver Mullaney after he died by suicide.

David Henry, a former acting company sergeant in the Army Apprentice School in Devoy Barracks, said what he saw affects him “to this day”.

Mr Henry, who retired from the army in 1998, also told the tribunal that he was “ashamed” to have been an NCO in the 34th Platoon where Mr Mullaney had served until his death.

At the tribunal Mr Henry said: “Here, in front of everybody, I am ashamed to be a company sergeant of an apprentice company with people carrying on like that.

“I have never forgotten what I saw that (June 22) night and it still affects me to this day.

“To the apprentices of the 34th Platoon, I apologise to each and every single one of them here and now. That is something that I, as (company sergeant), thought I’d never have to face.”

Read full article by Neil Michael on the Irish Examiner website below.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-41876054.html

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Brigadier General Stephen Ryan told the Defence Forces Tribunal second lieutenants and lieutenants are ‘trained to do their job, and part of their job is to do recruit training’

One of the army’s most senior officers has described as “inaccurate” a claim that training for junior officers left them “ill-equipped” to train new recruits.

The claim was made on Thursday by a retired officer known as 2Lt B, who is alleged to have repeatedly mistreated recruits under his care at the Army Apprentice School in Devoy Barracks, Naas, in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The alleged mistreatment includes 2Lt B allegedly getting recruits to dance with each other and sing nursery rhymes after a day of firing range training on June 20, 1991. ​H​e is also alleged to have ordered a recruit to eat cigarette butts from an ashtray after catching him smoking in his dormitory.

Brigadier General Stephen Ryan was asked if junior officers were ill-equipped to train recruits. He told the Defence Forces Tribunal: “That wouldn’t be an accurate statement.”

He said second lieutenants and lieutenants are “trained to do their job, and part of their job is to do recruit training”.

He was himself a lieutenant when he was ordered to take over command of the 34th Platoon in July 1991 from 2LTB, who was a 2nd lieutenant at the time.

In a statement he had made to the tribunal, 2Lt B — who cannot be named for legal reasons — had said his own training didn’t equip him for his role as a platoon commander in the Army Apprentice School.

Brig Gen Ryan, who is the general officer commanding two brigade covering the eastern region of the country, said that, by the time he arrived at Devoy Barracks to take over from 2LTB, he was “well capable” of training recruits.

Read full article by Neil Michael on the Irish Examiner website below.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/courtandcrime/arid-41873592.html

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