An information resource for serving & former members of the Irish Army Air Corps suffering illness due to unprotected toxic chemical exposure in the workplace.
The Defence Forces Tribunal is expected to cost over €25m by next year.
Figures released to the Irish Examiner show administration and legal costs totalled €3.3m in 2024, including €2.8m in legal fees.
Those figures include the costs of the tribunal’s own legal team, as well as legal representation for the Defence Forces chief of staff and the defence minister.
In 2025, administration and legal costs rose to €8.26m, of which €7.7m was spent on legal fees.
Legal costs had reached €4.4m by the end of June 2026, with a further €360,000 spent on administration costs.
Those figures form part of the €7.5m allocated by the Government last October to cover the tribunal’s costs in 2026.
Costs are expected to exceed €6m in 2027.
Read full article by Neil Michael on the Irish Examiner website below.
As hearings pause for summer, the inquiry has heard harrowing evidence while legal costs continue to rise.
Photo: Gareth Chaney/ Collins Photos
The tribunal is a three-year inquiry into how complaints were handled in the Defence Forces from 1983 until 2024.
Its establishment in June 2024 was a recommendation of the Independent Review Group (IRG): Defence Forces Report.
Published in March 2023, that report detailed disturbing allegations which included the rape of both male and female soldiers.
Those abused include the Women of Honour, a group of serving and former members whose allegations featured in an RTÉ documentary by reporter Katie Hannon in 2021 which prompted the review in the first place.
They also include members of the Army Apprentice School in Devoy Barracks, Naas, Co Kildare, and air corps personnel exposed to toxic chemicals without being provided with adequate PPE.
Read full article by Neil Michael on the Irish Examiner website below.
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.
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’
Brigadier General Stephen Ryan after giving evidence at the Defence Forces Tribunal. Picture: Neil Michael.
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. He 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.
A Defence Forces officer accused of ordering a recruit soldier to eat cigarette butts has, for the first time, publicly denied those claims and all other allegations that he mistreated recruits.
At a packed hearing of the Defence Forces Tribunal, the officer, known only as 2LTB, was asked to address the allegations against him.
They include allegedly getting recruits to dance with each other and sing nursery rhymes — including Silent Night — after a day of firing range training on June 20, 1991.
One recruit, Oliver Mullaney, is alleged to have been repeatedly humiliated by the officer — who cannot be named for legal reasons — and to have been ordered to dance on a chair before kissing other male recruits.
The tribunal has heard that the 19-year-old was so upset by the way he was treated that he took his own life two days later while on armed sentry duty at Devoy Barracks.
The officer, after a momentary pause, addressed the tribunal and said: “I respect the right of all persons to come to the tribunal. Persons have come with allegations of abuse.
“I don’t doubt their sincerity. I would regret any feelings they have.
“I do have to deny I mistreated any member of the 34th platoon or any other apprentice.”
Read full article by Neil Michael on the Irish Examiner website below.
The Women of Honour abuse survivor group has described as “deeply concerning” an assurance given by the Defence Forces that the legal costs of officers accused of wrongdoing would be covered.
Photo: Gareth Chaney/Collins
The Irish Examiner has been shown a letter in which the Defence Forces assured the Association of Retired Commissioned Officers that their members would receive legal support if they had to appear before the Defence Forces Tribunal.
The assurance was given before any of the officers had even been notified by the tribunal legal team that they would be required to be witnesses.
The promise of support was made in October 2024 by then Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Sean Clancy, in response to questions around what support would be available to former officers likely to be called as witnesses.
The officers are understood to have included a number also referenced anonymously in the Independent Review Group Report of 2023, which detailed allegations of brutal and “sadistic” abuse of soldiers and included allegations of the rape of both male and female soldiers.
Diane Byrne, of the Women of Honour, said it is a concern that while their legal costs are so far not being covered on a regular basis, those of officers accused of abusing soldiers appear to have been covered.
She said: “The approach to funding and legal support continues to be deeply concerning. Institutions, senior figures, and even possible perpetrators have ongoing legal support publicly funded in real time.
“However, victims have no day-to-day funding or paid legal representation and are having to fight for a fair process. Any reimbursement that comes later does not address the reality that the work of engaging with the tribunal is happening now.
“Instead of focusing on recounting their experiences and assisting the tribunal to establish the truth, Women of Honour are having to focus on fair and equitable participation.”
Gavin Tobin, of the Air Corps Chemical Abuse Survivors, said: “There is complete inequality of arms at the tribunal. Perpetrators’ legal costs are looked after, the victims’ costs aren’t. That is not fair.”
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 Full Metal Jacket 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.
A senior officer has told the Defence Forces tribunal that he was surprised to hear apprentices would have been too “terrified” to complain about conditions in the apprentice school.
Generic Stock Defence Forces, action, training, soldiers, Air Corps (UJuly 2020)
The Defence Forces Apprentice School was like a “family”, Colonel Fred O’Donovan told Friday’s hearing.
The veteran of missions in Lebanon, Afghanistan, Chad, Kosovo and Brussels was responding to questions from the tribunal judge Ms Justice Ann Power.
“It depends on the context but I would be surprised if it happened in my time,” Mr O’Donovan said of the school, which closed in 1998. “Not everyone is perfect but we do do our best.”
Earlier, Ms Power had also questioned Mr O’Donovan — who trained recruits at the school between 1995 and 1998 — about his statement that apprentices could “confront the person causing harm” to them.
On a previous day, it had emerged that a teenage Defence Forces apprentice’s death in 1991 at Devoy Barracks in Co Kildare was regarded as suicide within his platoon. As well as investigating his death, the Defence Forces had also investigated a complaint Oliver Mullaney had been mistreated by a superior officer just days before he died.
The bombshell revelation by Colonel Damien Coakley was the first time it had ever been made public that there were two Defence Forces investigations into Mr Mullaney’s death, and that it could have been caused by anything other than an accident.
Ms Justice Power had asked Mr O’Donovan what he would tell apprentices to do if they were not happy with the way a superior officer was testing them.
To his reply that he would tell them to “confront” the superior officer, the judge asked him if that was really a realistic course of action.
He replied: “Probably not.” But he added that, in his time, “there were no real issues” and there was a good “bond” between apprentices and their senior officers.
Read full article by Neil Michael at the Irish Examiner website below.
A teenage Defence Forces apprentice’s death in 1991, treated officially as an “accident”, was regarded as suicide within his platoon, it has been revealed.
It has also emerged that, as well as investigating his death, the Defence Forces had also investigated a complaint Oliver Mullaney had been mistreated by a superior officer just days before he died.
The head of the Defence Force’s military police revealed the existence of the two investigations into Mr Mullaney’s death to tribunal lawyers when they interviewed him last month.
The revelation by Colonel Damien Coakley is the first time it has ever been made public there were two Defence Forces investigations into Mr Mullaney’s death and that it could have been caused by anything other than an accident.
Under cross examination by the tribunal’s senior counsel Michael Cush, the Irish forces provost marshal and director of military police told tribunal investigators he had become aware of “certain issues” around the death of Mr Mullaney in 1991.
He said he discovered there were two investigations into the 19-year-old’s death.
He found this out after he had been instructed by the tribunal to look into the investigation of Mr Mullaney’s death.
Mr Cush said: “In assisting the Defence Forces prepare for this tribunal, you became aware there were, in fact, two separate military police investigations in relation to the death of [Mr Mullaney]”.
Read full article by Neil Michael at the Irish Examiner website below.
Oliver Mullaney (19) had been in the military for only 20 months at time of his death at Devoy Barracks in Naas
The death of a 19-year-old apprentice at a Defence Forces barracks some 35 years ago is being examined by a tribunal into complaints of abuse within the military.
The Defence Forces tribunal is about to make an order for discovery of all military files relating to the death of Private Oliver Mullaney, an apprentice who died at Devoy Barracks in Naas on June 22nd, 1991.
Mullaney was a trainee motor mechanic who had been in the Defence Forces for only 20 months at the time of his death. He was from Sheffield, a townland just outside Leitrim village that was known as “Sheafield” at the time of his death. His parents were Joseph and Mary Mullaney, and he had three brothers and two sisters.
On the night of Saturday, June 22nd, Mullaney was on sentry duty at Devoy Barracks, which served as the Army apprentice school from the 1950s until it closed in 1998.
At about 9.15pm, three gunshots were heard. Mullaney suffered a head wound and died instantly. The fatal shots came from Mullaney’s own gun, a Steyr 5.56mm assault rifle. Reports in local and national newspapers the next week said the Army was treating his death as accidental.
It was reported at the time that the Army would hold an internal inquiry into the 19-year-old’s death, with an investigation also launched by gardaí at Naas. There is no record of the inquiry’s findings ever being made public.
A spokesman for the Defence Forces said: “Óglaigh na hÉireann is committed in its full support and co-operation with the tribunal of inquiry. However, as this matter is currently before the tribunal, it would be inappropriate to provide a comment.”
Read the full article by Ellen Coyne of the Irish Times below.
The death of a 19-year-old apprentice at a Defence Forces barracks some 35 years ago is being examined by a tribunal into complaints of abuse within the military.