Letters to the Editor: Culture of injustice, misogyny, and silence in the Defence Forces
'The Defence Forces has a culture of attempting to silence those who speak out about sexual and gender-based violence'. Picture Colin Keegan/Collins
I am writing in response to Dr Mary McAuliffe’s article in the Irish Examiner on June 27, ‘Two violent assaults on women, a slap on the wrist for the soldiers — 100 years apart’. In 2013, I presented my PhD thesis to the Irish Defence Forces, pointing out gender inequities, misogyny, and sexual- and gender-based violence among their ranks. At that time, they were not ready to hear what I had to say, and instead tried to silence me and dismiss my research findings.
At a conference hosted by the Department of Foreign Affairs in 2014, a woman officer who had told me privately that she agreed with every word in my thesis, publicly disagreed with my findings.
Several senior male officers were sitting in the front row of that conference.
