Defence Forces Tribunal: Training session 'a day of horror... like being in Full Metal Jacket', soldier says

Tribunal told recruits were constantly ordered to go on runs and do press-ups for hours on end while being shouted at and berated

The tribunal has already heard that, towards the end of that training session on June 20, 1991, apprentice Oliver Mullaney was ordered to sing nursery rhymes, dance with, and kiss other male recruits.

A training session two days before an army apprentice killed himself was “a day of horror” akin to the harrowing scenes of the infamous Full Metal Jacket movie by Stanley Kubrick, the ​D​efence Forces Tribunal into historical claims of abuse has heard.

Eddie Gibbons, who was just 17 when he joined the Army Apprentice School ​in Devoy Barracks in Naas, in October 1989, said it was so surreal it resembled a scene from the Vietnam war movie.

The 1987 film is remembered for the performance of R Lee Ermey as the sadistic Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, who breaks US Marine Corps recruits with his relentless bullying and abuse.

Mr Gibbons said recruits were constantly ordered to go on runs and do press-ups for hours on end while being shouted at and berated.

The tribunal has already heard that, towards the end of that training session on June 20, 1991, apprentice Oliver Mullaney was ordered to sing nursery rhymes, dance with, and kiss other male recruits.

Mr Mullaney​ was just 20 months into his apprenticeship in the Defence Forces and was training to be a motor mechanic when he died on the evening of June 22, 1991.

At the time, ​the 19-year-old had been on armed sentry duty at Devoy Barracks and was found dead after three shots had been fired from his semi-automatic service rifle.

“It was a day of horror,” Mr Gibbons recalled. "It was just surreal. It was like being in Full Metal Jacket. It was just crazy.” 

He said they were “ran up and down” the gun ranges they were training on, even though they were supposed to practise shooting.

“Being on the ranges is supposed to be relaxed,” he said. “You’re supposed to be concentrating because you are firing a lethal weapon. “I wouldn't call it training. I’d call it punishment.” 

He said after a day on the shooting range that had started at 6am, the recruits returned to their barracks around 7.45pm.

But he described recruits being constantly “ran around” the barracks, being made to do press-ups and sit-ups.

He said it was just constant, and much of what happened did not make any sense.

He remembers, for example, being told to sleep with a red flag on a 7ft flag pole by NCOs telling recruits it was very important to protect their flags.

He would be constantly woken up over a three-hour period and checked on to see that he was still keeping his flag pole “safe”.

“I went to bed with a flag,” he said. “I know it sounds ridiculous. I just don’t understand the mentality of it. But yes, I had to go to bed with a seven-foot pole and a red flag. The [NCOs] would come in and check you had performed your duty.

“We had to make sure nobody took it off us.” 

He recalled recruits in their dormitory, cleaning out their rifles, which meant cleaning and checking each part.

“All of a sudden, officers came in and started running around screaming about protecting weapons," he said.

“Technically your weapon was in multiple pieces. But you would have officers taking bits, and you’d have to go running after them to get the piece back.

“It was surreal.” 

The late Mr Mullaney was a particular target, he claimed.

“They focused on a few particular people. They really, really focused on Oliver Mullaney."

He broke down as he tried to describe how Mr Mullaney was treated but said he was “mindful” of the fact Mr Mullaney’s sister Teresa was attending the tribunal.

Mr Gibbons also told the tribunal he and other recruits who were not in the barracks on the weekend Mr Mullaney died first heard about his death on the radio.

The current public hearing module is the latest phase 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.

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