Seán Rooney family 'concerned' by lack of UN engagement

The family of Private Seán Rooney are concerned and frustrated that the United Nations has so far failed to respond to a request from a coroner for assistance in examining the circumstances of his death in Lebanon two years ago, an inquest has heard.

Coroner Myra Cullinane told a brief sitting of Dublin District Coroner's Court that she had not received a reply to date to a request she had sent to the UN on 6 August.

Pte Rooney, 24 and from Newtowncunningham, Co Donegal, was killed while driving an armoured jeep on UNIFIL peacekeeping duties in Lebanon on 14 December 2022.

The deceased, who was attached to the 27th Infantry Battalion at Aiken Barracks in Dundalk, Co Louth, suffered fatal gunshot wounds after his UN convoy was attacked by armed militia linked to Hezbollah.

Dr Cullinane told the hearing that she had gone through the proper channels of making her request for assistance from the UN through the Department of Foreign Affairs.

The coroner observed the issue came into sharp relief against a background of the increased awareness at the moment of soldiers being deployed with UNIFIL in Lebanon.

She said it was important to pursue what information could be acquired and put into the public domain about the circumstances of Pte Rooney’s death.

Counsel for the Defence Forces and the Minister of Defence, Remy Farrell SC, said he could not say when the UN might respond to the coroner’s request.

However, Mr Farrell said Tánáiste Micheál Martin had specifically raised the issue with the UN during his recent visit to New York.

Solicitor for Pte Rooney’s family, Darragh Mackin, said they were deeply concerned and frustrated at the failure of the UN to engage with the coroner given they were "the very people to campaign to protect life."

"We would request the UN to engage to get to the truth of what occurred that day," said Mr Mackin.

The solicitor had complained at a previous hearing of the inquest in July that the "elephant in the room" in the attempt by Pte Rooney’s family to get answers over his death was that the UN had conducted significant investigations into the fatal incident but that there were potential restrictions about their availability to assist the inquest.

Asked about the status of information sought from the Defence Forces by the coroner, Mr Farrell said good progress had been made but a little more time was needed to allow the response to be finalised.

The barrister said there was a lot of significant material but there were some documents which would need to be redacted because of their sensitive nature.

Mr Farrell pointed out that there was heightened concern with security aspects of some information given the current situation in Lebanon, if it became known to "outside actors."

He observed that the Defence Forces were looking at a way of redacting operationally sensitive material in a way that it still remained meaningful.

Mr Farrell said there was a similar concern in relation to a list of members of Pte Rooney’s 121st Infantry Battalion with their rank and expertise as well as documents about standard operating procedures as they could disclose information about operational capability.

The inquest heard the coroner had also sought a notebook, diary and phone records of Captain David Kelly, who was in charge of the fatal convoy.

Mr Mackin replied that Pte Rooney’s family fully understood the need for some information to be redacted.

The solicitor said they were also looking to see screenshots from Capt Kelly’s phone and expressed hope that it would not be a contentious issue.

Dr Cullinane adjourned the inquest until 24 January 2025.