The Defence Forces Lost High-Calibre Ammunition for Several Months
The Defence Forces Lost High-Calibre Ammunition for Several Months
Text: Izzy Copestake
The ammunition was eventually found, in the place it had been lost.
Official documents seen by The Irish Times and corroborated with military sources has revealed that the Defence Forces lost a bag of high-calibre rounds which were seized during an investigation into the alleged theft of military property by an Army officer. The ammunition was “lost” for several months, before being found in the place it was initially left.
In December 2021, the Defence Forces took 129 rounds of ammunition and divided them into three bags before placing them in a secure area at Kilkenny barracks. Two months later, the bags were moved to another location on site, and a senior officer instructed that the rounds be repacked into steel boxes. When staff carried out a routine check in April 2022, they realised one of the bags was missing. Senior officers and the local Garda superintendent were immediately notified, triggering a search of the barracks and a Garda-led criminal investigation into what was officially recorded as “the theft of ammunition.”
This led to an extensive Garda operation over fears the ammunition could have got into criminal hands. Investigators looked into construction workers and private security personnel on-site at the time but found nothing suspicious. They also examined the base’s CCTV system, which had been damaged by clothes pegs being jammed into the rear of the CCTV hard drive, sparking fears it had been deliberately tampered with to facilitate a robbery.
The missing bag of ammunition turned up in November 2022, stuffed into a loosely tied sandbag not far from where it had originally been stored. According to one staff member, it was likely placed there by accident during a routine inspection earlier that year. The Defence Forces described the mix-up as an “inadvertent error” and stated the rounds had remained within a secure area the entire time.
Even after the ammunition was found, the officer at the centre of the investigation was still brought before a court martial. While most charges were later dropped, he pleaded guilty to a minor offence involving how historical equipment was logged. The judge treated it as a disciplinary issue and fined him three days’ pay. The officer went on to be promoted before retiring with a clean record. When asked about the case by The Irish Times, a Defence Forces spokesperson said it would be inappropriate to comment on specific Military Police investigations.
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