By Sean O’Riordan

Special medals given to members of the Defence Forces to commemorate the 1916 centenary are being sold on Ebay and similar online auction sites.

A senator, who is a former soldier, said he is “very saddened” to discover this, but believes young soldiers are selling them to make ends meet because they are so poorly paid.

Senator Gerard Craughwell said he believes that older soldiers who have served on the border and in overseas UN postings would “be very unlikely to part company with them because they would value what they represent”.

He said in his opinion, it is more likely that they would be sold by younger members of the Defence Forces who don’t yet value their meaning and are trying to make a few euro to pay for fuel and to feed their families.

One 1916 Commemorative Medal, together with the box it was issued in, was on sale on Ebay yesterday with an asking price of £235 (€264.82).

Mr Craughwell believes that the medals he’s seen for sale are genuine. However, it should be noted there have been cases in the past where close inspection of military medals from other countries have shown they were fake.

Slightly more than 9,000 commemorative medals were handed out to members of the Permanent Defence Forces and a further 4,000 were given to the Reserve Defence Forces.

Mr Craughwell said the manner in which the medals were handed out also has to be questioned: “I know of one soldier with 44 years of service who retired in December 2015 who didn’t qualify for the medal. Yet recruits who joined in 2016 were given it.”

He is campaigning to get the 1916 medal for personnel who served for many years, but lost out because the medals were only handed out to those serving in 2016.

This story first appeared in the Irish Examiner.