{"id":544105,"date":"2026-06-19T20:46:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T20:46:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/544105\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T20:46:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T20:46:12","slug":"army-apprentice-was-verbally-abused-and-mocked-by-seniors-day-before-death-tribunal-hears-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/544105\/","title":{"rendered":"Army apprentice was verbally abused and mocked by seniors day before death, tribunal hears \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 19-year-old Army<\/a> apprentice was subject to verbal abuse and mockery by senior officers the day before he died by his own gun at Devoy Barracks in Naas, Co Kildare<\/a>, some 35 years ago, a tribunal has heard.<\/p>\n

Oliver Mullaney, from Co Leitrim<\/a>, was \u201cextremely upset\u201d and \u201ccried and cried\u201d in bed after being picked on by three seniors, former apprentice Brian Murphy alleged at the Defence Forces<\/a> Tribunal on Friday.<\/p>\n

He said the trainee motor mechanic and the rest of the platoon were 20 months into their training at the time and \u201cwere being treated like dirt\u201d. One officer \u201cput a particular focus on Mullaney\u201d, \u201cslagged\u201d him about being from a rural farming background and rearranged the teen\u2019s beret to look like a farmer\u2019s hat, Murphy said.<\/p>\n

Murphy, who went on to receive two medals for his service in the Army, including on United Nations<\/a> missions in Lebanon, said he \u201c100 per cent\u201d believes the alleged treatment of Mullaney contributed to his death in the early 1990s. He said he made a statement to military police about the alleged treatment of Mullaney despite two officers allegedly trying to dissuade him from doing so.<\/p>\n

Padraic Lyons, counsel for one of the seniors, who cannot be named, said his client does not accept any of the \u201cvery serious allegations\u201d against him. He denies he engaged in bullying or that his interactions had any link to Mullaney\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

The Defence Forces Tribunal, chaired by Judge Ann Power, is examining how the military handles allegations of abuse through its culture and complaints processes. It was initiated after allegations of sexual abuse were raised publicly by a group of ex-Army women who call themselves Women of Honour. <\/p>\n

Hearing this officer denies all claims of mistreatment of apprentices, Power noted she will not be determining whether or not any allegations against particular officers are true. <\/p>\n

Another former Army apprentice told the tribunal he was kicked in the ribs and punched in the stomach during his time at the Naas training camp when he was aged between 16 and 18 in the early 1990s.<\/p>\n

Damien Traynor spoke about various alleged incidents of punishments and physical abuse he claims he suffered at the hands of Lyons\u2019s client.<\/p>\n

In one incident alleged by Traynor, he was called into the senior\u2019s office and given \u201cproper kicks in the ribs\u201d while taunted about thinking he was a \u201cbig lad\u201d. He alleged the officer stood on his back while making him do press ups and then punched him in the stomach as part of an effort to make him sign documents for his discharge from the Army. He said the officer had a \u201cred face\u201d and \u201cwild eyes\u201d during the incident, after which Traynor could \u201cbarely walk\u201d.<\/p>\n

Asked why he did not complain then, he said: \u201cThere was nobody to complain to … He was in control and that was it.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cI never felt that I was the only one being treated like this … There were others who I felt were treated equally as bad,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said he considers himself mentally strong but he self-harmed and became suicidal when things came to a head in his final weeks in the programme when he had a series of interactions with seniors. He alleges he was \u201cforced\u201d to sign papers for his discharge from the military.<\/p>\n

Traynor, who now runs a successful business, had \u201calways wanted to join\u201d the Defence Forces and became emotional as he spoke of the \u201ccareer I lost\u201d.<\/p>\n

Asked about an Army document alleging he bullied other apprentices, Traynor said: \u201cI have never been called a bully in my life.\u201d One of his \u201cproudest\u201d moments was when the platoon refused to follow an order to conduct punishment against a fellow apprentice, he said.<\/p>\n

The tribunal resumes next Tuesday.<\/p>\n

If you are affected by any of the issues in this report, please contact The Samaritans at 116 123 or email at jo@samaritans.ie<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 19-year-old Army apprentice was subject to verbal abuse and mockery by senior officers the day before he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":544106,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,9217,18,13,14,6,19,17,119626,3625,11,12,10743,15,16,5,7,8,2863],"class_list":["post-544105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-defence-forces","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-irish-army","tag-kildare","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-leitrim","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-united-nations-un"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116778735653719502","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=544105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}