VICTIM HAD TO PAY ARMY €2,500
One of the women featured in the Women of Honour documentary has told the Irish Mail on Sunday how she had to pay €2,500 to buy herself out of the Army.
‘Ciara’, a former member of the naval service, told in detail how she left the military after being confronted by two male superior officers – one of whom was only wearing a towel – while she was in her cabin on board a ship.
In the weeks leading up to the incident, the 23-year-old recent recruit felt so unsafe she asked for a lock to be installed on her cabin door.
She was subjected to constant catcalling from a senior officer who said ‘hey sexy, hey good looking’ every time their paths crossed. eventually she opted to isolate in her cabin when off duty.
When two senior officers confronted her behind a closed door in her cabin, Ciara asked to be taken off the ship the next day.
One of the officers reached for her hands and urged the young woman to touch the other man wearing the towel. Several weeks later she left the naval service after paying €2,500 to ‘buy herself out’.
Meanwhile, the two men were posted on different ships and fined €300.
This weekend Ciara said: ‘It wasn’t a simple pay and go. They were trying to get me to stay and there were constant phone calls. It wasn’t as easy as you’re paying, so goodbye.
‘I was earning about €400 a week so it was nearly two months wages. I was thinking I wouldn’t have to pay because of everything that went on.
‘But no one ever said that the cost would be waived so I had to pay it. They were ringing me saying I had to go back to work until it was sorted.
‘It was more distress on more distress. You think you are free but no, you have to go back to work until it was all approved. It was awful.
‘At the time I didn’t care about the money. I just wanted to get out of there.’ Ciara also said that she didn’t take part in the documentary because she wanted to get her money back.
She added: ‘Obviously looking back now, they should have given me my money back… I shouldn’t have had to pay at all but at the time when you’re in that situation you do anything to get out of it.’
Meanwhile, Ciara described pledges by politicians to make Ireland safer for women following the death of teacher Ashling Murphy in Tullamore this month, as ‘hollow words’.
She said: ‘They say they’re going to make Ireland safer but again it’s all talk. What are they going to do? Show us, don’t just say this and that.
‘This review announced by the minister is going to take nine months. Again they are saying this and then it’s hush, hush, and push it under the carpet and nothing will be done.
‘They’re saying other women can come forward if something has happened to them.
‘But all these poor girls can come forward and say whatever they want. But what’s happening to the men? nothing.
‘Are they actually going to investigate and charge these people if that’s what the victim wants? no, there’s too much work for them.
‘I think they’re just pushing everything away and hoping that it will all go away and everything will pipe down. To me it’s all hollow words.’