Former soldiers tell their stories of abuse while serving in Defence Forces

Anthony O'Brien was a young soldier in the 1980s when he was told to drive a commandant home from the Curragh Camp. Once on the Kildare back roads, the officer put his hand on O'Brien's knee "and moved it right up towards my privates".

“I told him to get off me and he asked me what I was going to do,” O’Brien recalled. “I told him I was going to crash this saloon if he didn’t get his hand off my leg. And that he could explain what happened in the report. He just whipped his hand off me and said ‘you’re no f***ing fun, O’Brien’.”

More than two decades later O'Brien, having retired as a sergeant in 2003, told his story on a Facebook page read by ex-military personnel. Within minutes, others began to tell their stories.

Most relate to the Curragh Camp, but there were accounts, too, of sexual abuse and rape elsewhere, and on overseas UN missions. The oldest dated to the 1950s, the latest to the late 1990s.

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Some details have been corroborated, through either court records, publicly available information or interviews with other military sources

The abuse ranged from accounts of sergeants climbing into the beds of sleeping privates, to rape and attempted rape of male and female soldiers, to accounts that a paedophile once existed in the Curragh’s married quarters.

Another veteran told O’Brien of a non-commissioned officer driving out the main gate. A sentry stopped him after hearing sounds coming from the boot. Inside, he found “two scantily-clad female recruits”, crying.

Anonymised details

O'Brien collated the stories, and sent on anonymised details to then minister for defence and taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Defence Forces chief of staff Vice-Admiral Mark Mellett. The first tranche was sent last May, with frequent updates since.

“I wanted them to know about this stuff. I want something to happen for these victims,” O’Brien said this week.

He went to the Defence Forces Ombudsman, too, but was told it could deal only with serving soldiers or those who had left in the previous six months.

So far, O’Brien has sent about 40 different testimonies to Defence officials. Some are allegations only, some are backed by supporting information.

The Irish Times has spoken to a small number of these complainants. Some details have been corroborated, through either court records, publicly available information or interviews with other military sources.

Some accounts consist only of second-hand information, or concern victims or abusers now dead. Many accounts use technical or slang terms unique to the military; most lack exact dates or locations.

But some contain highly specific information including, in one case, the victims’ serial number and the names of abusers.

Others said they were abused but expressed little interest in taking the matter further. “What is the point in doing anything about it now?” one man said.

Reckoning

In some ways, the Defence Forces had its reckoning with sexual abuse long before many other Irish institutions. Between 1996 and 2000 Tom Clonan, then an Army captain, researched the bullying, harassment and sexual abuse of female soldiers.

The results were shocking. Fifty-nine out of 60 said they had experienced bullying, harassment or sexual harassment. Twelve said they had faced sexual assault, including rape.

“The nature of the alleged assaults ranged from touching, to allegations of attempted rape and rape. All of the women interviewed were critical of the manner in which the Army handles such incidents,” Clonan wrote in his 2001 PhD thesis.

One woman said she had rejected the advances of an NCO. During chemical warfare training later, the NCO ripped off her gas mask, leaving her coughing and retching, before grabbing her by the neck and kicking her out the door.

The Clonan research caused uproar within the military, despite the fact it had been officially sanctioned by the then chief of staff. Later, the Defence Forces claimed Clonan, by then retired, had fabricated the research process and falsified some of the results.

However, the findings could not be ignored. Over following years, major reforms were introduced. Nearly 20 years later, the Defence Forces acknowledged Clonan’s contribution, when Vice-Admiral Mellett welcomed him back to address senior officers on diversity and inclusion in 2019.

Owned up

While the Defence Forces has, in some ways, owned up to issues surrounding the treatment of women, the alleged sexual abuse of male soldiers and children on military bases remains in the background.

Some details of this abuse has leaked out. In 2012, Hubert Gannon was jailed for six years for sexually abusing five children, including his daughter, while he was a Curragh-based soldier.

“Sexual abuse was rampant up there and my father was the worst,” his daughter later told the Irish Mirror in 2016. “There are an awful lot of dirty secrets in the Curragh Camp.”

Mary (not her real name) comes from a military family and spent a 1970s childhood in the Curragh Camp. There, she was sexually abused by a military policeman. He also abused her brother and sister.

The allegations of rape and harassment are not limited to Ireland. Both Clonan and O'Brien gathered stories of women soldiers being raped while on UN duty

Living in the married quarters, he had easy access to the victims, until he was later convicted and jailed. Only later did Mary realise that others had shared the same fate.

Years later, she lived in the camp as an employee of the Defence Forces. However, she was protective of her daughter, refusing her permission to go to parts of the camp. “I was trying to protect her. People would say the Curragh was a wonderful place to grow up. And it was. But it also had its horror stories.”

The allegations of rape and harassment are not limited to Ireland. Both Clonan and O'Brien gathered stories of women soldiers being raped while on UN duty. In 1998, Irish military police investigated allegations that a male soldier had raped a woman in the Lebanon.

The man was later fined for being in the female quarters without permission. No charges of rape were brought.

Details of the O'Brien-gathered accounts were first raised on Kildare FM last week by Sinn Féin TD Patricia Ryan. Replying, a spokesperson for Minister for Defence Simon Coveney said he is taking the matter very seriously and "is fully cognisant of the trauma suffered by victims". Details of the allegations have been passed onto the Garda.

However, the statement also pointed out that some of O’Brien’s information is “third-hand, would appear to have been garnered from social media responses, and the origin of the information is difficult to verify”.

It is “difficult” to know, said the spokesperson, whether alleged abusers are former or ex-soldiers, or ever were in the military, whether the alleged events occurred in barracks, or elsewhere, or whether the Garda has previously investigated.

Discredit

Unhappy with the reply, O’Brien claims the statement is an attempt to discredit his work and deflect calls for an inquiry. Clonan, who has reviewed the allegations, says O’Brien’s accounts “have more than a ring of truth to them”.

“Anthony is a genuine guy. Some of what I’ve seen is chillingly familiar. The [allegations] all fit a pattern of abuse of position and trust and access and sexual exploitation that is almost like a photocopy of the interviews I conducted.”

O'Brien's accounts are partly corroborated elsewhere, too. Lt Col Dr John Tobin, who until his retirement in 2017 was the Defence Forces' chief psychiatrist, wrote to O'Brien last November, saying that the suffering of veterans continued to fill him with sadness.

Living in often isolated barracks makes abuse more likely, while hierarchal structure of militaries make victims less likely to speak up

During 20 years as a Defence Forces psychiatrist he dealt with victims of sexual abuse, he said. The reforms in the early 2000s helped, but allegations of “sexual assault and sexual harassment continued to present at my clinic.

“There were improvements in the handling of this issue, but at times I felt more could be done.”

Dr Tobin did not respond to requests for interview.

Allegations of sexual abuse and harassment are not unique to the Defence Forces. Last week, the UK parliament heard that women soldiers are coerced to withdraw complaints or change their evidence if they have made complaints.

“Óglaigh na hÉireann is in no way unique in this regard,” says Clonan. Living in often isolated barracks makes abuse more likely, while hierarchal structure of militaries and the emphasis on discipline make victims less likely to speak up.

This has been a particular issue in the Defence Forces, says Clonan. "The Irish Army would have been extremely conservative and still is, in some ways," adding that the class-based, rank system "made it very, very hard for people to voice even the most constructive criticism. And that culture is still there."

Like O’Brien, Clonan wants a full “non-adversarial” inquiry held into the Defence Forces, especially the Curragh Camp, where “people could tell their stories”.

The next steps are unclear. Jacqui McCrum, the new secretary general in the Department of Defence, has met with O'Brien and wrote to him last week after his Kildare FM interview to say the department is not trying to undermine him and to offer to set up an official point of contact to offer him support.