LAST UPDATE | 6 Oct 2021
ON THE 11TH September, RTE broadcast Katie Hannon’s extraordinary Women of Honour documentary.
In this landmark piece, Irish women soldiers, sailors and aircrew, for the first time in the history of the state, came together, to talk on the record, about their experiences of bullying, harassment, sexual assault and attempted rape in Ireland’s Defence Forces.
The significance of this moment cannot be understated. For ‘Women of Honour’ was not just a radio documentary. Women of Honour – survivors of sexual violence in our armed forces – are a national #MeToo movement for Ireland.
Truth is out
Their disclosures of sexual violence come 21 years after my own doctoral research – carried out as a serving officer in the Defence Forces – was published. In my research, then as now, I recorded the voices of 60 Irish women in the Irish military and their experiences of gender based discrimination and gender based violence in our Defence Forces.
The accounts were raw and set out in forensic detail the most appalling experiences of sexual assault and rape. The research also demonstrated the endemic nature of an explicitly discriminatory and toxic misogynistic culture within our armed forces – Oglaigh na h’Eireann. The explicitly discriminatory policies as they existed for women and the anachronistic, punitive training environment, in particular, were cited as primary systemic and systematic causes of this toxic culture.
When my research was published, I became the target of that toxic culture. Former friends, colleagues and comrades in arms immediately participated in a vigorous campaign of reprisal against me.
Senior officers in Defence Forces HQ engaged in a campaign of character assassination, smear tactics to discredit me as an officer, researcher and credible military scholar. Transparency International Ireland would later describe my case as a textbook case of Whistleblower Reprisal, where a powerful organisation seeks to destroy the reputation, career and life of a person who exposes wrongdoing.
I was accused of falsifying my research, fabricating its findings and I was accused of breaching the Official Secrets Act – and threatened with criminal prosecution.
Confronted by these false accusations, I called for an independent government enquiry to investigate my research. The then Minister for Defence, Michael Smith T.D., acceded to my request. The ‘Study Review Group’ investigated my research and I was completely vindicated with regard to my findings of discriminatory policies and a toxic culture of bullying, sexual violence and reprisal for those who spoke up and spoke out. The Study Review Group also found that male soldiers were targeted for bullying, sexual assault and rape.
Has anything changed?
In the last 20 years, the Defence Forces responded by publishing a raft of revised policies and procedures designed to transform Oglaigh na h’Eireann concerning diversity, equality and dignity in the workplace.
I believed that the organisation had moved forward and over the last 20 years as a journalist and security analyst, I have stated in on the record interviews, and in countless opinion pieces and features on the Defence Forces that they were ‘examples of best practice in the international military’ with regard to preventing sexual violence and promoting a culture of equality and diversity. It turns out, I was wrong.
When I heard the Women of Honour broadcast, I was horrified to hear the voices of my sisters in arms – 21 years after my original research – describing in detail their experiences at the hands of sexual predators in the Defence Forces, and significantly, the immediate reprisal and isolation that they experienced when they spoke out.
The women who spoke were incredibly courageous. In the 25 years since I carried out my research – where the maximum variation sample of 60 women were anonymised – I have never heard any survivor, with the exception of former soldier Valerie O’Brien, speak out on the record. The women are re-traumatised by the re-telling of their stories and their families and loved ones are re-visited by the sexual assault and reprisal they endured whilst serving in our Defence Forces at home and abroad.
No longer afraid to speak out
I was particularly struck by how the pattern of their assault and subsequent reprisal matched precisely the pattern of disclosures I had set out in my doctoral thesis 21 years ago.
But, I was not prepared for what happened next. Since the broadcast of Women of Honour, I have been contacted by dozens of young women – and some young men – who are currently serving in our Army, Naval Service and Air Corps. They have contacted me by many different means and their disclosures of bullying, harassment and sexual assault have two recurring themes.
One, they have no confidence that they will be heard in what they perceive to be a toxic culture in the Defence Forces. Two, they – unanimously and without exception – state that if they do speak up, they will experience ‘immediate’ and career-ending reprisal from the military authorities.
The last few weeks have been a roller coaster of emotion. For everyone in the Defence Forces community. When I heard the Women of Honour broadcast, I was shocked, angered and deeply saddened by the disclosures. But, I also felt that Katie Hannon’s documentary was a game-changer. The Women of Honour will empower other survivors and those currently targeted to speak out and speak up.
I believe that this moment is the beginning of the end for the toxic culture that persists within our Defence Forces.
The disclosures and pleas for help from the young serving personnel that I have received have been very traumatic. Their disclosures inform me – and the sheer number of them confirms this – that Ireland’s Defence Forces is not a safe place for women.
I’m devastated to say this and feel sick to my heart that so many young women and men have experienced life altering and life limiting bullying and sexual violence in the 21 years after my research first – in forensic detail – highlighted the problem, its causes and solutions.
The military authorities and general staff of the last 20 years have serious questions to answer in this regard – as do the senior officers who participated in the whistleblower reprisal visited upon me and my family when I raised the issues of endemic bullying, sexual harassment, sexual assault and rape within Oglaigh na h’Eireann.
What next?
However, I believe this is a turning point. The Women of Honour – as far as I am aware – have not experienced reprisal on this occasion. Rather they have been heard by the Minister for Defence, Simon Coveney and the Secretary General of the Department of Defence, Jacqui McCrum.
They have both apologised – without hesitation – for the appalling experiences outlined in their disclosures. Simon Coveney announced today at the PDFORRA conference the appointment of an independent confidential person to whom women and men can safely make disclosures without fear of reprisal. This is a key development and is most welcome.
I believe that the efforts of the Secretary General and the Minister will – finally – bring to an end the toxic culture within our Defence Forces. In order to do so however, they must continue to involve the Women of Honour in the independent review process. The review must not confine itself to an examination of reporting and investigative procedures – for these are just symptoms of the toxic culture – they must also examine the causes and solutions, as set out in my original and comprehensive doctoral thesis 21 years ago.
As the new Chief of Staff navigates his way through this appalling crisis, he must listen to the Women of Honour – in the same way that they have been listened to by the Minister and Secretary General of the Department. The Chief must also involve the representative associations, RACO and PDFORRA who have been consistently vocal over the years for the requirement for organisational justice and dignity in the military workplace. RACO and PDFORRA will be crucial to re-negotiating and re-imagining our Defence Forces in the aftermath of this crisis – an armed forces that is fit for purpose.
For my part, I remain at the disposal of the Minister, Secretary General and Chief of Staff to assist in any way that I can to provide constructive and positive, solutions-based advice in this regard.
For his part, the new Chief of Staff, Lt General Sean Clancy should follow the example of the Minister and Secretary General and apologise on behalf of the Defence Forces – unreservedly – to the survivors of sexual violence in the forces. He has not done so as yet – to do so now would be a very powerful signal to the Women of Honour and Irish society that he is the Chief of Staff to finally end this toxic culture.
Dr Tom Clonan is a former Captain in the Irish armed forces. He is a security analyst and academic, lecturing in the School of Media in DIT. You can follow him on Twitter.
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