Defence Forces instructed to provide directives given to military police investigating abuse

The investigations into complaints about the treatment of members of the Defence Forces Apprentice School featured in the tribunal’s first round of public hearings, which ended in July. File picture: Evan Treacy/Press Association

The Defence Forces has been ordered to hand over instructions given to military detectives whose investigations included the suicide of a teenage apprentice and the rapes of both male and female soldiers.

The order has been made by the Defence Forces Tribunal as part of its ongoing investigation into the Defence Forces' handling of complaints of abuse.

Tribunal lawyers want to see all “provost marshals directives” issued by the provost marshall, or head of the military police, to his deputies and their staff over a 41-year period.

The tribunal lawyers say the directives — guidance documents that cover the conduct of individual investigations — are needed to help establish exactly what instructions “ought to have been adhered to” by officers investigating complaints of abuse.

The order for the documents covers “all provost marshal directives applicable to assistant provost marshals when investigating a complaint of abuse any time from January 1, 1983 to June 20, 2024”.

A notice on the tribunal website states: “The tribunal is satisfied the documents and materials are relevant to its investigation. Their discovery and production are necessary to enable it to carry out its functions and to report on the matters of urgent public importance.”

The order has been made ahead of next Wednesday's resumption of public hearings in the Infinity Building in Dublin’s Smithfield before Ms Justice Ann Power.

It is the second public hearing module of the tribunal, which was established in June 2024 by then Tánaiste and defence minister Micheál Martin after a report of a review into allegations of brutal and “sadistic” abuse was published.

Those allegations, in the March 2023 Independent Review Group (IRG): Defence Forces Report, included the rape of both male and female soldiers groomed by senior officers for sex.

The IRG report described a “discernible pattern of rape and sexual assault” in barracks, naval boats, swimming areas, showers and abroad while serving with the UN.

The investigations into complaints about the treatment of members of the Defence Forces Apprentice School featured in the tribunal’s first round of public hearings, which ended in July.

The treatment of apprentice Oliver Mullaney received particular attention as bullying he endured led to his suicide in 1991.

Although his death was officially treated as an accident, it emerged at the tribunal that, as well as investigating his death, military police had also investigated a complaint that the 19-year-old had been mistreated by a superior officer just days before he died.