Fergus Finlay: Judicial inquiry would bring honour to Defence Forces’ women

From Rachael Blackmore to Leona Maguire, it has been a great year for Irish women in a sporting context. But a radio documentary lays bare the truth they face in the Defence Forces

Katie Hannon’s RTÉ Radio 1 documentary ‘Women of Honour’ featured first-hand accounts by female Defence Forces members of alleged sexual assault and harassment by male colleagues and superiors.

SOMETIMES I find myself wondering what kind of a country we are at all. There are times, I think, when we are brave and noble, and times when we’re two-faced and hypocritical. I’ve listened twice now to Katie Hannon’s riveting and powerful documentary on the radio, and what it says about one of our respected institutions is frightening.

Women of Honour told the truth about what happens to Irish women in a particular context. Its title couldn’t have been more appropriate. It was gripping and painful. And it was modern. The women involved share their experiences with each other on a WhatsApp group. No ancient history here.

Their story chimes with history, recent and less recent. The story of how Ireland treats women. And it is in the starkest contrast possible to something else that has been going on this year.

Before I listened to the documentary, I was going to write a quite different piece. Mainly because I was so bowled over by Leona Maguire’s amazing performance in the Solheim Cup last week. She did Europe proud, she did us proud, she did her native place and her family proud, and she did herself proud.

She wasn’t the first woman to do it this year. With all its Covid misery and suffering, if Ireland was looking for a great international sports star of the year in 2021 — a sports person who would grace any stage in the world — that contest was pretty much over in April.

Rachael Blackmore won the Grand National that month. A month earlier, she had won the Champion Hurdle in Cheltenham, and had gone on to be the leading jockey at the race meeting with six wins.

She was the first woman in the history of racing to do any of that. It was an astonishing performance, even to those of us who wouldn’t know one end of a horse from the other. Irish Sports Star of the Year? Rachael Blackmore, no question.

And then the Olympics happened, and Kellie Harrington took her event — and her country — by the scruff of the neck. I don’t know whether there has ever been a time when so many Irish people staggered out of bed to sit glued to the television at six in the morning. I imagine sometimes that Kellie must have been able to hear the cheering from thousands of homes in Ireland, even though she was 6,000 miles away.

In winning, Harrington became much more than a champion. She became and will remain an icon for her local community — a place that has had more than its share of disadvantage and neglect. She became a role model for women and girls everywhere.

And she really complicated the Irish Sports Star of the Year competition. Not so sure who to give it to now, are we?

And then came the Paralympics. Ellen Keane drove the northside of Dublin wild with her stunning gold medal performance in the swimming pool. Katie-George Dunlevy and Eve McCrystal won so many medals in cycling that I’ve lost count.

And all that happened before Leona Maguire. I certainly wouldn’t want to have the final responsibility for picking the sports star of the year this year.

There’s only one thing for certain. It will be a woman.

And it will be a woman who has overcome economic or social adversity in some instances. The barriers created by a life-changing disability in others.

But virtually all the women who have achieved so much this year have one thing in common. They have done it in sports where, until recently, they weren’t welcome in the first place. 

Horse-racing, boxing, golf, cycling — these were all the preserve of men. Women were patronised and condescended to if they were let in at all.

So every one of these women had a lot to overcome — and should be all the more proud for doing it, even if none of them chose to point it out.

It shouldn’t be like that in the Defence Forces. Of course military life has always been seen as a male preserve, and it can be a dangerous job for men and women alike.

Of course military life has always been seen as a male preserve, and it can be a dangerous job for men and women alike. File picture

However, the Defence Forces boast about a vision — they put it on their website — and a set of values that demand professionalism, selflessness and courage from those who join. They single out moral courage as a quality to be nurtured: “You must do what you know is right, not what is easier or popular.” That’s their watchword.

But when you listen to Katie Hannon’s programme, and hear the stories told, honestly and clearly, by Karina Molloy, Yvonne O’Rourke, and other women who signed up to serve their country, you realise the moral courage is all theirs.

When you hear about the loneliness and isolation, the discrimination and harassment, the physical and emotional consequences for women in a particularly brutal male environment, you realise that calls by our Defence Forces for moral courage have fallen on a lot of deaf male ears.

When you realise that these women of honour have largely been forced out of their careers, and little or no negative consequences have fallen on the men who perpetrated abuse on them, you can only conclude that calls for moral courage not only fell on deaf ears but may have been uttered with forked tongues in the first place.

The Defence Forces have responded to the programme. I’ve read a quote from them in several papers — not on their own website or any of their social media channels, mind you — to the effect that “the Defence Forces said it treats ‘all incidents of sexual harassment, harassment and assault with the utmost seriousness’".

Really? It doesn’t seem like that, does it? The stories told by the women of honour all point to an institutional response very much like the way bishops used to respond to abuse by their clergy — circle the wagons, nothing to see here.

THIS week, Defence Minister Simon Coveney will also respond. He has a chance — one he should have taken already — to take this issue away from the bureaucratic instincts of the Defence Forces and to force a real investigation. It has to have all the teeth of a judicial enquiry, and it has to be overseen by someone tough, independent, and fearless. A woman, in other words.

Calls by our Defence Forces for moral courage have fallen on a lot of deaf male ears. File picture: Colin Keegan

When you think about it, it often requires as much bravery (maybe even more) to speak out, to tell the truth to a hostile world, as it does to overcome adversity and fight to win a medal. We praise the sports stars for their courage and we admire their tenacity. We praise the women of honour too, but we secretly want them to go away quietly.

They mustn’t. Through their courage and resilience, the women of the Defence Forces have already begun to make an impact and have a chance to change things forever. It’s never easy to blow the whistle on an institution, especially a closed and secretive one — but the women of honour have already done a huge public service by forcing a creaking door ajar.

If the rest of us allow it to close, we’d be betraying them again.