Letters to the Editor: Culture of injustice, misogyny, and silence in the Defence Forces
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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.
The Defence Forces has a culture of attempting to silence those who speak out about sexual and gender-based violence. This includes researchers. I am thinking here of Dr Tom Clonan, as well as women who are current or former members.
A woman soldier told me that she was kicked and beaten so badly by two of her male colleagues that she was hospitalised. The men visited her in hospital and threatened her with further violence if she spoke out.
I was pressurised to remove a chapter from my PhD thesis detailing sexual and gender-based violence in response to concerns raised by a senior male officer who questioned whether I would be given permission by the Defence Forces to publish my findings, if the content remained. As I had signed a proforma giving them final decision-making power over my content, I complied.
Instead, I inserted a statement outlining the facts of the bullying, harassment, and assaults reported to me without providing details, because I was concerned about the women’s safety. They told me that they could not report because they did not trust the system and were fearful that they would be subjected to backlash and further violence.
The Women of Honour have called for the Tribunal of Inquiry into the complaints processes in the Defence Forces on discrimination, bullying, and sexual misconduct, to include crimes perpetrated by Defence Forces personnel.
It’s time now for the Irish government to listen to them and for the Irish Defence Forces to end its impunity for gender-based violence. This culture of injustice, misogyny and silencing cannot go on for another hundred years.
Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh was a gifted and enthusiastic teacher in O’Connell’s primary and secondary schools where many young students were inspired by his good nature, positivity and love of life.
Teaching’s loss was Ireland’s gain when Mícheál swapped his chalk for the microphone. Ever since, we have all been spellbound by his powerful bilingual commentary which transported us to a wonderland of sporting prowess, intertwined with tales of sportsmanship, folklore and intriguing asides.
Mícheál had a passion for an Ghaeilge, Irish culture, and Gaelic games. He was an eternal optimist with the ability to praise a good performance and to considerately overlook an off-day on the field. His commentary was filled with kindness and thoughtfulness.
I particularly admired Mícheál’s lifelong membership of the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association. His gold pioneer pin was always proudly displayed on his left lapel. As a gregarious and sociable man, he mixed comfortably with prince and pauper, with his glass half full of orange juice.
He was a role model for all of us who serve our sports clubs as players and administrators. We can best honour his memory by continuing to safeguard our under-age members from exposure to alcohol and by providing club environments that are not alcohol-centred.
Slán abhaile, m’laoch.
While there are many factors that contribute to the dangers on our roads: Speeding, faster cars with less protection, accidents caused or otherwise; I’d like to bring to notice an observation of mine with nearly 60 years of driving. I was a driving instructor examiner with the Defence Forces in the 1970s, so perhaps my observations are of some worth.
I’ll leave aside where I think some of the spoken and unspoken blame lies for deaths on our roads, and rather than play the blame game, focus on road worthiness where many of the tragedies occur.
Here’s the thing about rural roads and the many problems such as flooding and overgrown verges: The roads are, in the main, getting narrower. In many places where the roads were wider up to stone walls or narrow banks, the growth of weeds brambles, and bushes have taken over; the old stone walls have been lost as build up covers, builds up and takes over, nature will have its way.
The verges are allowed to encroach onto roads making the roads narrower.
The roads, instead of being scraped and scarified before new surfaces, aren’t, with the result that roads are getting higher as extra layers of surface are added, and instead of being cambered, only resurface towards encroaching grass verges, and the verges gain a bit more area. Drainage is lost, causing flooding when there’s rain, and we get more than our fair share in the whole country.
In a nutshell, roads are getting narrower, levels are getting higher, drainage is lost as old drain escape paths are overgrown, clogged and lost.
With the ever-increasing sizes in trucks and cars, safety is lost.
Road works in much of rural Ireland is a patch up cover up seen to be done, but not actually being done, and if anything undone.
Cars are taxed for the roads, roads are taxed for cars. But the roads aren’t as fit for purpose in many cases.
There was more roadway when there was horse and carts, pony and traps, and jaunting cars than there is today for tractors and trucks.
As I said, just an observation.
It seems Ursula von der Leyen intends to contact Fianna Fáil MEPs seeking their support for her presidential re-election bid full in the knowledge that they told the electorate during the campaign that they would not do so because of her stand on the Middle East carnage.
Clearly, Ms von der Leyen has little respect for the democratic process. Luckily, we have fine, upstanding politicians who keep their word and election promises and would not dream of behaving in a manner that might bring the EU and its institutions into ill repute.
I was very happy to see an article on the dangers of ultra processed foods (‘Ultra-processed foods need tobacco-style warnings, says scientist’; Irish Examiner, June 27).
These foods are being marketed directly to our children through gaming and streaming platforms, they are widely available in our schools and hospitals, and yet they are clearly shown to be as dangerous as Tobacco products.
The companies that make these ‘foods’ are not working to promote human health, rather they are focussed purely on profits and at the expense of our health.
We need to lobby against the industrial food companies and demand that these food-like substances be labelled as dangerous to human health and controlled so that they do not take over from real food in our shops and homes.
We need to bring the discussion of the dangers of ultra-processed foods into the foreground and teach it in our home economics classes. And this article is the kind of start we need.
Ireland’s wind plus solar power will always leave us with a shortfall of energy, as wind strength and solar intensity are inconsistent.
The scandal is that we would have access to the other low-carbon, and reliable, energy were successive governments to have had the courage and intelligence to learn about and explain the advantages of nuclear to the public.
A lot more is now known about safe disposal of long-term waste, and we could by now be choosing the most suitable small modular reactor for Ireland’s energy situation.
Politicians themselves won’t start an energy conversation including nuclear as one of several low-carbon energies either because they are themselves ignorant or avoiding the subject to save political position.
Neither reason is admirable.