SEAN CLANCY SPENT many of his years in the Air Corps flying helicopters to rescue people from crippled shipwrecks and stranded on mountain sides. His current mission – as Chief of Staff of the Irish Defence Forces – is rescuing the organisation he leads.
Clancy spent much of his childhood in the rural north Cork town of Mitchelstown – before moving to Ennis in County Clare.
He joined the Irish Defence Forces in 1984 as a cadet and commenced his flight training in 1986. His career saw him flying helicopters for 16 years, leading and piloting many search and rescue missions.
His ascent has been steady through the ranks – rising to be Lieutenant General and the Chief of Staff of Oglaigh na hÉireann, arguably at one the most pivotal points in the history of the organisation since its foundation.
Clancy sat down with The Journal recently to discuss his 15 month tenure in the top job, the challenges of change and his message to the men and women of the Defence Forces.
It’s been a tumultuous period with the revelations of the Women of Honour scandal, the Covid-19 pandemic, war in Europe, the Commission on the Defence Forces report and an action plan to bring Defence into the modern era.
Clancy said the trauma and grief at the death of Private Seán Rooney shook the Defence Forces as 2022 ended.
The Chief of Staff said that it has left an indelible mark on his comrades in Lebanon who continue their mission with the burden that one of their own has died in action.
Clancy said that “that military life carries with it inherent risk and sometimes comes with the ultimate cost being paid”.
Seán Rooney’s memory, he said, “will never be forgotten by any of us”.
The Chief of Staff said that the Defence Forces was a “a tightly-knit family” and that while those in uniform serve it is only through the support of their families at home.
He paid tribute to the troops and said that their “continued commitment” to bringing peace to South Lebanon was “an inspiration to us all”.
Beginning
Clancy arrived at the Chief of Staff post just as the Women of Honour scandal was breaking – an immediate challenge from the outset, he believes it has been a major driver for how he has worked as Defence Forces chief.
The Women of Honour group were a number of female Defence Forces members who acted as whistleblowers in regard to their own treatment of bullying and sexual harassment in their military lives. Their claims were detailed in a high-profile radio documentary in late 2021.
“I entered in a storm, if you like, in terms of the Women of Honor – that was a huge challenge.
“When I look back at it now – and even then – I was very clear: ‘I’m at the beginning of my tenure, I have the opportunity and those with me to do something about this and to tackle it’.”
Clancy said his immediate gut instinct was to engage directly with the scandal – along with his command staff team, and working closely with Department of Defence General Secretary Jacqui McCrum.
The looming Independent Review Group report in to the Women of Honour allegations is on the horizon but Clancy is certain that there must be a joint response across the defence sector.
“No one person has all the answers on it and we don’t know the depth of what went on and the depth of the injury or the personal injury that is associated with this.
“As the year went on more (cases) unravelled and so we’ve taken that journey and put in a very proactive approach.
In terms of tackling the institutional claims raised by the group, he said: “At the end of all that I still come to a very firm position this work will never be done. You have to constantly battle this because that’s human nature. It’s the nature of big organisations.”
Clancy said that the Defence Forces will “fully embrace” the findings in the Independent Review Group.
Reflecting on the calendar year of 2022, Clancy said that as he returned to work in January his main priority was finalising a response to the damning Commission on the Defence Forces report, which highlighting major gaps in Ireland’s defence structure.
That damning report was published in early February. Just weeks later, Europe woke up to the news that – after weeks of buildup – the unthinkable had happened and Russia had launched a full-scale atack on Ukraine.
“When you stand back and reflect on the year, you say, gosh, the first actual state on state war since the Second World War,” Clancy said, recalling the time.
The Defence Forces Chief said the conflict had had have been significant impacts on Ireland. He said that in recent years migration from North Africa across the Mediterranean to the EU had made some European States “acclimatised or normalised” to the issue.
The change, he said, has been the sight of refugees moving across the “the landmass of Europe” in response to the war.
Ireland, he said, had also felt the economic, food and energy security fallout from the conflict in the 11 months since the start of the invasion.
Clancy believes that the war has driven on conversations “that are consequential to that war” across the EU around neutrality and he noted the response of one-time neutral countries such as Sweden and Finland, which are both now bidding to join NATO.
He said that this is particularly significant as Ireland has been a partner of those nations in the Partnership for Peace – a programme of bilateral engagement between countries across Northern Europe and NATO.
“[They have] made a change to their status, their foreign policy, and in terms of their neutrality – and that has kindof evoked different conversations in Ireland as well, which is very interesting.
“But I think, like the President [Michael D Higgins] said, we should have respectful and thoughtful conversations around that space and I think that’s helpful.”
Clancy also referenced Brexit as having a key geopolitical impact on Ireland. Separately, looking at the past year, he said other priorities included unrest in areas where Irish troops are deployed – particularly in Congo – and political uncertainty in other areas, like South Lebanon.
“So it has been a very hectic year, but it’s been very rewarding as well in terms of how the Defence Forces has stood up as a whole – not only on the island of Ireland, but in all of those international fora,” he added.
Clancy also referenced the continued response to the Covid-19 pandemic which, although eased, still involves Defence Forces personnel. Military personnel are still involved in transporting samples, vaccinations and other work associated with the national response to Covid-19.
The Chief of Staff also spoke of the Defence Forces being called on to respond to the staffing crisis in Dublin Airport Authority’s (DAA) security.
At the time there was extensive commentary that the Defence Forces should not be used to build capacity for a incident created by staffing levels in DAA following lay offs during the pandemic.
He believes that when the Government calls for help the Defence Forces must respond, noting:
“When the state asks of course we advise in terms of what is the appropriateness of various actions.
“But at the end of the day, if the government assigns us, we have to do it within the means and capabilities and the general staff and I are very conscious, what are the means, what are the capabilities and if we are cutting our cloth.
“That’s what we have to do and I think there is more and more awareness of that, as a consequence, right across Government in terms of the limitations, and we have to understand that we have limitations,” he added.
In answering a question about the mindset of someone who takes on one of the biggest jobs in the State the Chief of Staff is adverse to a characterisation that the last year has been chaotic. He does agree that it has been a disruptive time and less stable than it was for previous incumbents.
“I don’t look at it as chaos – I’ve never looked it as chaos. I’ve looked at it as working my way through it.
“You asked me how quick the year has gone. I don’t know because you’re moving from day to day.
“You have these strategic issues like the Commission going on and trying to look over the horizon and how we’re going to map and implement that.
That’s a real strategic cerebral thinking and then you have the instant, kind of reactive space around issues that are arising on a day to day like, the critical infrastructure and all of that, and you just have to compartmentalise that and manage that.
The numbers
From a numbers perspective it has been a busy year with 128 separate Aid to the Civil Power operations with gardaí in regard to bomb disposal operations.
There were 350 fisheries inspections on trawlers at sea by the Naval Service with five search and rescue calls along with four diving call outs in connection with searches.
For the Air Corps there were 415 air ambulance flights in their operations with the National Ambulance Service as well as 49 inter hospital transfer flights and a large number of fire fighting call outs.
350 recruits went into training with just over 40 cadets began the process of becoming officers.
Experience
He repeatedly mentioned the concepts of duty and responsibility and the importance of his staff and the rest of the Defence Forces working in concert.
But there are clearly other learned experiences that have shaped his viewpoint – he references the devastating loss of four fellow search and rescue operators in the crash of the Dauphin on the beach at Tramore in 1999.
Air sea rescue helicopter crew members Capt Dave O’Flaherty (30) from Lucan, Capt Mick Baker (28) from Wexford, Sgt Paddy Mooney (34) from Meath and Cpl Niall Byrne (25) from Dublin died shortly after midnight on 2 July, 1999, while returning from a successful rescue mission off the Waterford coast when their helicopter hit a sand dune in thick fog.
He said that, during his Air Corps days, the search and rescue operations had kept him in Ireland, with a brief stint in Bosnia. It is clear that the life and death business of helicopter rescue work is what has informed his world view.
While he said that he did not have specific ambitions as a young officer to reach the most senior rank in the Defence Forces events like Tramore led him towards it.
“I had decision points in my life throughout my career, and I made deliberate decisions at different times in my career, to stay in the organisation and to drive on.
“One of those critical points is when we lost a helicopter Tramore.
“Quite frankly when we lost that helicopter and that crew it was hugely impactful, devastating to a point on an awful lot of people.
“But we rebuilt and that was the resilience that we had in ourselves, we had in the unit and in the organisation as a whole. We built ourselves back up, and we drove on.
“But for me, that was a turning point,” he said.
Clancy said the job for him, as an officer in the unit at the time, was to find a way “to make things better, to make it safer and to give people a raison d’etre” to keep going.
“I carry that same ethos with me, no matter what job I am asked to do,” he added.
The year ahead
He said a key mission for 2023 will be about achieving the level of ambition as set out in the Commission report.
Clancy said that the year ahead would see key movement and momentum on the recommendations contained in the Defence Action Plan for the future of the Defence Forces.
“What I see in 2023 is that accelerated process and there is a huge effort and huge momentum behind the transformation right now,” he said.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say