Newbridge man becomes Army's senior officer

A KILDARE native is to become the most senior soldier in the country after being nominated to be Chief of Staff of the Defence forces.

Last week the government accepted the recommendation of the Tánaiste and Minister for Defence, Mr. Simon Harris TD, to nominate Brigadier General Rossa Mulcahy for appointment by the President as Chief of Staff designate of the Defence Forces.

Originally from College Park in Newbridge, but now living in Naas, Brigadier Mulcahy is currently serving as assistant Chief of Staff, and is married to Lorna with two daughters, Caoimhe and Laoise.

He will succeed the current Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Seán Clancy, who will leave his post to take up a new appointment as chair of the European Union Military Committee on 1 June, the date Brig Gen Mulcahy formally takes up his new duties.

“I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Brigadier General Mulcahy on his appointment and I look forward to working closely with him in the future,” said Tánaiste Harris.

“My priorities are to continue the transformation of the Defence Forces to ensure that it is a fit-for-purpose organisation to defend the state and meet the challenges we face now and into the future.” 

Brigadier General Rossa Mulcahy is a professional communications officer with over 39 years' experience in a variety of roles across the Defence Forces as well as deployments with the United Nations and NATO where he has had three deployments to Lebanon, two years in Syria and Lebanon, the senior Irish officer at NATO's mission in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Brigadier General Mulcahy took up his present position in October 2021 and has responsibility for a range of organisational level issues.

He has previously served as director of strategic planning from February 2020, where he was responsible for strategy development, defence policy programme implementation, defence forces' Annual Plans, and international security and defence policy coordination.

From 2019 he was the director of communications and information services, with cyber being one of his areas of responsibility.

Brigadier General Mulcahy has served in all of the CIS Units within the Army; he has held appointments in the joint command and staff school and the Defence Forces' management information framework section as a Lieutenant Colonel.

His educational qualifications include a B. COMM from NUIG, a higher diploma in Information Technology from NUIM, a B.Sc. in Management Information Systems from UCD, an MA in Leadership Management and Defence Studies from NUIM.

Coincidentally, the announcement of Brig Gen Mulcahy’s appointment came on the same day the government voted to dismantle the ‘triple-lock’ defence policy. 

In July 2024, the government approved the preparation of the necessary legislation to provide for the reform of high-level Command and Control of the Defence Forces.

This will include the creation of a new position of Chief of Defence with the appropriate military command and control authority of the Defence Forces, and at that stage, the position of Chief of Staff will no longer exist.

His appointment is for a minimum period of two years, pending the introduction of the forthcoming Command and Control legislation, and not exceeding five years.

On its establishment, he will be eligible to apply for the new position of Chief of Defence.

The reform of high-level Command and Control of the Defence Forces will have no impact on the constitutional role of the President of Ireland as Supreme Commander of the Irish Defence Forces. 

The principle of control of the military by a civilian, elected executive, which has served the state well, will be reinforced in the new structures, with the Minister for Defence retaining the right to command the Defence Forces on behalf of the Government.

The Secretary General of the Department of Defence will remain as accounting officer.