UN gives Government new information on the death of Private Seán Rooney in Lebanon

Private Seán Rooney was killed on active service in Lebanon in December 2022.

The UN has given the Government new information concerning the death of Private Seán Rooney.

The Irish Examiner has been told a flash drive was handed over to the Permanent Mission of Ireland to the UN in New York on March 5.

The information was sent, according to a UN diplomat with knowledge of the Pte Rooney case, from the under-secretary-general for legal affairs and United Nations legal counsel Elinor Jane Britt Hammarskjöld.

The Irish Examiner has asked Ireland’s mission what is on the flash drive, which follows requests for more information from Rooney family lawyer Darragh Mackin.

But it is expected to contain information garnered from Unifil and UN's administrative reviews of protocols and procedures on the night Pte Rooney was killed on December 14, 2022.

Of the decision to provide Pte Rooney’s family with more detail, UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres’ spokesperson said last December the UN had already provided “quite a bit of information” to Pte Rooney’s family.

More information is coming down the pipeline, the spokesperson said. 

A spokesperson for the Department of Defence said: "We have been advised, in line with normal diplomatic communications from the UN, that (a) response has been issued to the Permanent Mission of Ireland and will now be transmitted to the coroner.

"Due to the ongoing inquiries, it would be inappropriate for the Department of Defence to make any comment in advance of these inquiries concluding."

They added the information came after "numerous representations made at both political and ministerial level to the UN" regarding a request made by the Dublin City Coroner to access reports in relation to Pte Rooney's death.

Questions remain about the exact sequence of events from the moment Pte Rooney arrived in one vehicle at a checkpoint just across the River Litani in southern Lebanon at the same time a vehicle with his commanding officer, Captain David Kelly in it did.

These questions also revolve around why exactly both vehicles became separated, and why did they lose communication with each other.

There are also issues around the state of the vehicles being driven by both sets of troops on the night, with concerns already raised about the tailgate of Pte Rooney's vehicle and issues with the spec of the tyres on the vehicle carrying Captain Kelly.

To date, the UN has always insisted its final board of inquiry report — which is based on Unifil’s so-called administrative report into the incident — could not be made public.

Unifil’s report was completed in January 2024 and while a copy went to the UN in New York, a redacted version was also sent to gardaí and the Government.

Unifil’s investigation was launched a few hours after Pte Rooney and three colleagues were fired on in Al-Aqibiya on the night of December 14, 2022.

After members of a group of people who had surrounded the vehicle in the southern Lebanese town managed to pull open the tailgate of the vehicle, Pte Rooney managed to get away from them.

But as the 24-year-old from Newtowncunningham, Co Donegal, was driving his colleagues to safety — and saving their lives — a volley of shots were fired into the back of his vehicle.

At least one bullet hit Pte Rooney moments before he crashed and the vehicle, which was just four minutes from the main highway into Beirut, overturned. 

Trooper Shane Kearney, from Killeagh, Co Cork, sustained a serious head injury during the crash and he is still recovering from his injuries.