A Woman in Defence is a landmark publication. In this work, the author Karina Molloy provides a unique and seminal insight into the experience of female soldiers in the Irish Defence Forces. The Defence Forces has long used the term ‘A Life Less Ordinary’ to describe military service in Ireland’s armed forces. Molloy has certainly lived a life less ordinary as a soldier and her story is an extraordinary account of sheer determination, resilience and survival in Ireland’s military workplace.
Molloy served a total of almost 31 years in the Defence Forces. In 1981, she was enlisted to the first female platoon of private soldiers in the history of Oglaigh na h’Eireann. In a historic moment for the Defence Forces – and for Ireland – Karina was one of 38 women who completed their recruit training in the Curragh Camp in October 1981.
The army band played Thank Heaven for Little Girls as the women marched in their final passing out parade. RTÉ archive footage of the time shows the women conduct their foot drill with considerable precision. Their young faces – including a young Molloy – display a steely determination to succeed despite the obstacles that they would face in a workplace culture characterised by toxic masculinity, misogyny and sexual violence.
Molloy’s account of her service is delivered – in true military style – in forty short, vivid chapters. It is a highly readable and engaging work. The narrative comes from the heart, and each chapter packs a considerable punch. Molloy’s recollections are delivered with an arresting mix of in-your-face military precision and an emotional intelligence that provide an absorbing, poignant and often shocking account of her time in the Defence Forces. Above all, this is a real soldier’s tale. It is blunt, to the point and Molloy emerges from the page as the warrior that she is. And it becomes clear, after 30 years of service, she is still fighting.
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In 1981, and throughout much of the 1990s and 2000s, the Irish Defence Forces were completely out of step with international military best practice regarding the recruitment, training, deployment and promotion of female personnel. Irish women in our armed forces faced a plethora of explicitly discriminatory and idiosyncratic rules, regulations and standard operating procedures imposed upon them by the military authorities. For example, women were forbidden to assume command in an operational environment, female pilots were forbidden to fly aircraft with weapons on-board and many fully trained soldiers were forced to work as waitresses in officer’s messes or given other “feminised” and low-status duties.
This highly gendered division of labour within the Defence Forces – designed by the general staff – had the effect of making it almost impossible for women to be promoted. Women were routinely denied the workplace experiences identified by the army as essential criteria for promotion. Despite this, through sheer grit and a relentless will to succeed, Molloy was the first woman in the Irish Defence Forces to be promoted to the senior noncommissioned officer rank of Company Quarter Master Sergeant or CQMS.
Molloy also served overseas on 11 tours of duty in five conflict zones in central Europe, the Middle East and Africa – from Bosnia and Kosovo to Lebanon, Chad and Eritrea. The book takes the reader through all of these experiences in vivid detail – the tough and brutal courses of instruction that Molloy had to complete, the exacting selection procedures and the intensity and loneliness of her overseas deployments.
This ritual humiliation – organised and orchestrated by senior office holders – was accompanied by repeated room invasions and sexual assaults perpetrated by her superiors
Above all, Molloy’s love for soldiering and the Defence Forces shine through each chapter. Her intense pride in her military and overseas service is clear. What is heartbreaking for the reader is the price she had to pay to pursue the career of her dreams. The dysfunctional toxicity of the Defence Forces workplace culture is writ large throughout this work to the extent that it is difficult to know where to start in addressing it. It also speaks directly to the enormity of the challenge confronting the current general staff in making our Defence Forces fit for purpose for 21st-century Ireland.
In the closing chapters, Molloy reflects on her lengthy service. In writing the book, “I found only four years without incidents of sexual abuse, attempted rape, harassment or bullying in the entire 30 years and 278 days of my career”.
In every Defence Forces training course she attended throughout her career, Molloy reports some form of gendered bullying, sexual harassment or sexual assault – perpetrated by her superiors, course instructors and directing staff. In recruit training, she recalls arbitrary collective punishments while forced to wear boots and other items of male-pattern uniform that did not fit correctly. She describes her first appointment as a trained soldier in 1981, “I was appointed as unofficial tea-lady ... my first job every morning was to serve tea to the officers in the branch”.
On her Potential NCOs Course in Cathal Brugha Barracks in the mid 1980s, Molloy describes a serious sexual assault perpetrated by one of her chief instructors. She also describes how this individual – a senior noncommissioned officer – boasted about the assault in the NCOs mess. “The perpetrator was bragging to others ... I gave Molloy a good groping in the pool this morning”. Molloy says that when she reported the matter to her superiors, she was threatened and intimidated by senior officers. She describes the experience as a complete humiliation, made “even worse, that everyone knew and that no other NCO condemned him [the perpetrator] for his vile behaviour”.
It is clear from Molloy’s accounts throughout the book that the gender-based discrimination and violence she encountered in the Irish Defence Forces were not random – it was systemic and systematic. The discriminatory architecture was authored and promulgated by successive General Staffs and the acts of sexual violence perpetrated by her superiors and instructors.
On overseas missions, Molloy reports repeated episodes of serious sexual harassment and assault including attempted rape by Irish officers and other ranks. On her first mission to Lebanon, on her 23rd birthday, she describes how her commanding officer presented her with a pair of “lacy knickers” – in front of an assembly of her superiors – with the words “wish I was here” printed on the most intimate part of the garment. This ritual humiliation – organised and orchestrated by senior office holders – was accompanied by repeated room invasions and sexual assaults perpetrated by her superiors.
Molloy writes that when she reported the first such incident, the senior officer rebutted her complaint thus: “Molloy, you’ll keep that quiet ... remember, you have a long six months ahead.” On this mission, her reporting officer continually harassed her with explicitly sexual remarks and sexual assaults, repeatedly grabbing her from behind by the hips, whilst remarking, “I’m f***ing having you now”. In this environment, Molloy describes a further serious assault and attempted rape while on overseas service.
This pattern repeats itself throughout her accounts of overseas service. In 2002, when she describes an Irish officer breaking into her room in whilst serving overseas. Depressingly, she recounts the reaction from a senior officer when she reported the incident: “For f**ks sake Karina, I need this like a hole in the head ... Do you really want to report it?”
Throughout the book, it is clear that the military authorities repeatedly engaged in acts of reprisal against anyone who reported sexual abuse or sexual assault. Molloy describes in detail the collective efforts of senior Irish military personnel in punishing anyone who broke the Defence Forces “omerta around sexual violence”. “Many men relished this macho, misogynistic and exclusively male atmosphere and seemed completely threatened by the arrival of women,” writes Molloy.
Despite her considerable resilience and success, Molloy concludes that the experience of service in the Irish Defence Forces “traumatised” her. “I had been traumatised in the workplace for years ... the culture of sexual violence in the Army ... led to problems with intimacy and a huge distrust of men ... The incidents of sexual assault and bullying were always sitting there in my head and they haunted me in cinematic detail.”
In 2021, Molloy and other female veterans of the Defence Forces formed the group Women of Honour and went public with RTÉ’s Katie Hannon to disclose their experiences of widespread gender-based discrimination and violence in the Irish Defence Forces. This prompted the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence to launch a Judge-led inquiry to investigate the workplace culture of Oglaigh na h’Eireann. The Independent Review Group will publish their report later this month.
In the meantime, Molloy concludes her book with a warning to any young woman considering a career in the Defence Forces in 2023. “If any 18 year old woman asks me if they should join the Defence Forces, my answer, sadly, remains the same. Hold off until there’s real protection in place. It hurts me to say this ... this organisation remains – as it proved throughout my 31-year long career – a dangerous place for women.”
Further reading
An Officer, Not a Gentleman (Penguin) by Mandy Hickson is her account of becoming the first female fighter pilot in the RAF. Mandy’s journey from raw recruit to full combat pilot is compelling in many respects. Her own determination and the support of her male colleagues feature in her story, culminating in aerial combat over Iraq and motherhood.
Love My Rifle More Than You (Orion) is Kayla William’s classic 2005 book on her experience as a US soldier on the front line in Baghdad and Mosul during the War in Iraq. Her descriptions of military training and experiences of combat are vivid, reflective and thought provoking.
The Unwomanly Face of War (Penguin Modern Classics) by Svetlana Alexievich, tr. Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. This excellent book recounts the experience of Soviet women who fought in second World War. Snipers, combat infantry, tank drivers and gunners, these women fought and died alongside their male comrades. This book dispels any myths about the ability of women to fight and kill. Not for the faint-hearted.
