A retired Army colonel, who received the Distinguished Service Medal for his "courageous and aggressive" defence of an Army base in the Congo in 1961, has taken an action for damages for hearing loss against the State.
Mr Anthony Murphy (62), of Ashton Close, Templeogue, Dublin, received the military honour when the Irish base at Kamina was attacked and came under heavy fire. The High Court was told his reaction prevented enemy forces gaining a foothold in the base.
Mr Padraig McCartan SC, for Mr Murphy, said his client had been exposed to an "awesome range" of weaponry during his 42 years of service. As well as serving in the Congo, he had also served in Lebanon and the Middle East.
From 1956 to the late 1970s, Col Murphy used cotton wool and Vaseline as supplied by the Army for ear protection. He was later issued with ear plugs. During the course of a visit to an Army doctor in 1993, it was discovered he had a hearing problem.
Mr McCartan said there was a similarity in three audio-grams carried out between 1997 and this year. The last one showed that hearing loss to date was 23.31 per cent and loss into the future would be 1.29 per cent, making a total of 24.1 per cent.
During cross-examination, Mr Michael O'Kennedy SC, for the Minister for Defence, said Col Murphy had had a distinguished Army career.
Col Murphy had, apparently in a "very aggressive action", prevented attacking forces getting a foothold. Mr Murphy agreed he and his soldiers had been in a war situation for a number of hours.
It was not customary to wear ear plugs or muffs in a war situation, counsel said. Mr Murphy said there was no time to think of that.
Mr O'Kennedy said it was not the practice in any army in the world at the time to wear ear plugs or ear protection in a war situation. Mr Murphy said that was "generally right".
He put it to Mr Murphy the first time ear protection was used in any army was five years after the Congo incident. The British army introduced it in 1966. Mr Murphy disagreed. From his reading about wars, cotton wool was always used.
Mr Murphy said the action at Kamina lasted a number of hours but that did not mean firing took place all the time. In a military situation, he could be in a building away from troops.
Mr Murphy said he did not become aware he had a hearing problem until 1993. Before that he had been examined annually and had received a "whispering" hearing test and the doctors had not detected any problem.
The hearing continues today.