Defence Forces Tribunal seeks documents relating to death of army apprentice

Tribunal seeks Defence Forces records linked to 1991 apprentice death. FIle picture

Senior officers are to be compelled to provide Defence Forces Tribunal officials with documents relating to the death of an army apprentice 35 years ago.

A Notice of Intended Order for Discovery was issued by the tribunal last month, just weeks before the start of a public hearing module in Dublin last week.

Tribunal officials told Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Rossa Mulcahy on May 14 that they would be issuing the order within one week.

The documents requested will form part of a dossier of evidence relating to Oliver Mullaney’s death and the alleged mistreatment of young apprentices around the time of his death in June 1991.

The tribunal has requested the annual performance appraisal reports of a former apprentice school officer and all documents relating to, or arising from, the decision to remove an officer from the school.

The order will also seek all documents relating to, or arising from, admonition proceedings — a formal but non-punitive process — arising from the Military Police investigation into the alleged “ill treatment of inferiors” at the Army Apprentice School in 1991.

Last week, while giving evidence to the tribunal, the head of the Defence Forces Military Police revealed information about the death of Oliver Mullaney, which has officially been described as an “accident”.

He had been on armed sentry duty at Devoy Barracks and was found dead at around 9.15pm after three shots had been fired from his semi-automatic service rifle.

He died from injuries caused by bullets fired from his own weapon.

Colonel Damien Coakley told the tribunal last week that he had recently discovered that, as well as investigating Mr Mullaney’s death, the Defence Forces had also investigated a complaint that he had been mistreated by a superior officer days before he died.

He also revealed that there had been two investigations into the young soldier’s death and that the possibility of a connection between his death and the alleged mistreatment had been examined.

More evidence relating to the alleged mistreatment of apprentices at the school, which was based at Devoy Barracks in Co Kildare before it closed in 1998, is due to be heard by the tribunal next week.

Mr Mullaney, from outside Leitrim town, was just 20 months into his Defence Forces apprenticeship and was training to be a motor mechanic when he died.

A Defence Forces spokesperson said: “Given there are several cases before the courts and this issue is also being considered by the Tribunal of Inquiry, it would be inappropriate for Óglaigh na hÉireann to provide comment on the matter at this time.”

The first module of public hearings, at The Infinity Building in Smithfield, Dublin, began last week as part of the latest phase of the tribunal established in June 2024 by then Tánaiste and Defence Minister Micheál Martin following a report detailing allegations of brutal and “sadistic” abuse.

Those allegations, contained in the March 2023 Independent Review Group (IRG) Defence Forces report, included claims of the rape of both male and female soldiers.

This module of the tribunal will investigate whether complaints of abuse in the Defence Forces were “actively deterred” or whether there was a culture that discouraged the making of such complaints.