Tánaiste brands as 'deeply unsatisfactory' delays in Private Seán Rooney trial

Micheál Martin has branded delays in a trial over the 2022 killing of Private Seán Rooney in Lebanon as “deeply unsatisfactory”.

The Tánaiste and Minister for Defence was speaking at the Oireachtas committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence and responding to queries from Deputy Reada Cronin.

Mr Martin told the Sinn Féin TD that he is anxious for the United Nations to “become proactive” in the matter.

Last month, Mohammad Ayyad, the only person yet to be charged in relation to the death of the 23-year-old soldier, did not appear, as scheduled, before a military tribunal.

The trial of Ayyad has now been adjourned until February, 2025.

Mr Martin has written to the Lebanese government and the UN to raise concerns.

“It is not satisfatcory,” Mr Martin said.

“Peacekeepers should be valued and their role should be valued

“The Lebanese judicial system should reflect the valuing of peacekeepers – particularly those who lose their lives in the course of duty.”

During a visit to the area earlier this year Taoiseach Simon Harris spoke with the Lebanese Prime Minister, Najib Mikati and raised the killing of Private Rooney.

Ayyad failed to appear at a hearing at the military tribunal in December citing medical reasons and the recent adjournment was the seventh time it has been delayed.

Mr Martin said: "Both I and the Government have consistently expressed our determination that all facts are established and no stone is left unturned.”

Previously, Ayyad appeared before five judges in August at a military court hearing in Beirut and admitted to firing a gun during the attack.

However, Ayyad denied involvement in Hezbollah, a militant group that dominates the area around Al-Aqbiya.

Four other men - Ali Khalifeh, Ali Salman, Hussein Salman, and Mustafa Salman - remain at large.

Private Rooney was driving an armoured jeep when a UN peacekeeping convoy in which he was travelling came under attack in the south Lebanon town of Al-Aqbiya on December 14, 2022.

Private Rooney, a Dundalk native who had lived in Newtowncunningham for the past decade, became the 48th Irish soldier to die while on a peacekeeping mission in Lebanon. He was due to wed his fiancé Holly McConnellogue in 2023.

Private Rooney was laid to rest in Newtowncunningham with full military honours.