THE FATHER OF Private Michael McNeela, an Irish peacekeeper who was shot dead by Israeli-backed militia in Lebanon in 1989, has said that he feels “let down” by the government’s stance that they cannot transfer his late wife’s bereavement payment to him. 

Michael McNeela was 21-years-old when he was shot dead on his second tour in South Lebanon in February 1989. 

His mother Kathleen was supplied with a bereavement payment following his death. Following Kathleen’s death last year, her husband John reached out to have the payment transferred to his name. 

“They sent me a letter saying that it wasn’t transferable to me,” John told Justin McCarthy on RTÉ Radio today. “I feel very let down, to be honest with you. The act that says this now is 80 years old, 1946, and it was never updated, because there’s not many cases like mine come up, and that’s why it was never brought out in the open.”

In the Army Pensions Act 1946, Part IV states that only the six people set out are entitled to be deemed a dependent of a deceased soldier: his mother, his grandmother, his grandfather, his permanently invalided brother, his permanently invalided and unmarried sister, and his father – if over 60 years of age or incapacitated by ill health. 

As John was neither over 60 nor in ill health when his son was killed, he is not entitled to the payment, despite his wife’s death.

John, who is now 84-years-old, said that the payment would make the world of difference to him.

“It means I can run a car, and I need a car because I’m not very good at walking, and if I hadn’t a car, I’d be a prisoner in my own home.”

He appealed to the Tánaiste and Defence Minister Simon Harris to reexamine the current act to allow bereavement payments for relatives of Irish soldiers killed in active duty to be transferred.

“It’s very rare, but Ireland will always be sending peacekeepers to maybe different countries, and the thing can happen like it happened, Michael, the way one or two might get killed, which I hope not,” John said.

“I am very hopeful [for change], and I would ask the Minister to do all he can. He’s the only man that can change it.”

Louth TD Ruairí Ó Murchú said that he has been engaging with the Tánaiste on John’s behalf.

“They stated that there would be an engagement at General Secretary level, but in fairness, I think John McNeela has said it, made the most cogent point, which is the Act needs to be updated.

“Everyone would accept that we should be looking after those families of people, of soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice, and a very small number of people. There may never be another case like this again,” Ó Murchú said.