The cousin of Private Seán Rooney, who was killed while on a peacekeeping mission in Lebanon in December 2022, has hailed his late relative for helping him achieve a career "milestone", after he was among a number of Defence Forces members commissioned this afternoon.
Second Lieutenant Chris McCluskey, from Co Derry, was among 35 members of the 100th Cadet class and 29 members of the 12th Potential Officers Course who were commissioned at the Curragh.
Lt McCluskey is a first cousin of Pte Rooney, who he said helped him get into the Defence Forces.
"Today means a lot to myself and my family. It's been a long 18 months, a lot of long days. It means a lot to finally reach this milestone in my career."
He says his cousin helped him to get into the Defence Forces.
"Seán helped me get into the Defence Forces. He gave me a lot of advice to on how to best to get in here and how to conduct myself.
"Whenever I get here every day, he still helps me every day… always I am thinking about him, and I just know that he would be proud.
"I know that my family are very proud," he said.
He said that peacekeeping was a massively important role in the world today.
Being commissioned into the 12th Potential Officer Class was Lieutenant Sean Curran, following almost 20 years of military service.
He received the first salute from his wife, Private Aoife Curran, watched on by their two sons.
"It's quite a difficult thing"
He thinks opportunities in the Defence Forces have increased dramatically.
"There's a lot more things attracting people into the Defense Forces. In my own career, I have been in an Air Defence Unit, a trainee technician scheme and trained as a printer," he said.
"I then trained as an emergency medical technician, and now we've had the opportunity to increase my options, my chances in the Defence Forces and get promoted to the rank of Officer."
Despite both being in the same career, he and his wife met online.
"Neither of us knew we were in the Defence Forces," he said.
"I've had family serving the military, and so had Aoife and I suppose we know the effort and the work it takes to earn a commission, especially coming from the ranks, it's quite a difficult thing."
Pte Curran said: "It was a very, very proud day. Really, really proud, and it meant a lot to both our families and to myself and to my two boys."
Their five-year-old son Charlie enjoyed the saluting the most, while his older brother said it was a really exciting day but he is not yet sure if he will follow in his parent’s footsteps.
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Also being commissioned today was 20-year-old Irene Kellegher. Her 23-year-old sister Anna is already a Lieutenant, whilst their youngest sister Isobel is a junior cadet who wants to follow in their footsteps.
Anna said being in the Defence Forces was better then a 9-5 job, whilst Isobel said she had seen firsthand the opportunities it could bring.
Defence spending
Speaking at the event, Tánaiste and Minister for Defence Simon Harris said he was not prepared to stand back and see Ireland lagging behind on defence spending.
"The process of increasing spending has already begun," he said, "we will work together to reach what we call Level of Ambition 3".
He said this process would take a number of years, but added: "It is where we need to get to. It is time to step up to the plate, increase investment in Defence, and ensure Ireland continues to play a constructive role on the world stage."
"It's time to step up to the plate, increase investment in defence and ensure Ireland continues to play a constructive role on the world stage."
Mr Harris said Ireland was at a turning point when it comes to recruitment and retention in Defence Forces.
Figures released to RTÉ earlier this month showed the strength of the Defence Forces dropping by around 2,000 in the last 15 years, but he said that would change.
"I think the numbers show that, albeit from a from a position of great fragility, we saw a leveling off and a very slight increase in numbers in the Defence Forces last year.
