Jadotville veteran has mixed feelings about medal announcement
One of the few living Jadotville veterans from Mullingar says that he has mixed feelings about the news that the State is to award them medals.
In one of his last acts as Taoiseach, Enda Kenny announced yesterday that the members of the 35th Infantary Battalion who were involved in the Siege of Jadotville are to be awarded medals by the State.
In 1961,158 members of the battallion defended a UN outpost in the Congolese town of Jadotville for five days against 5,000 mercenaries and Katangese rebels. The Irish soldiers, many of who were in their teens or early 20s, only surrendered when they ran out of ammunition. Despite their numerical disadvantage, they killed 300 rebels, while incurring no casualties of their own.
Now widely regarded as one of the greatest miltary achievements in the history of the Irish army, when the men of Jadotville returned home after spending a month as prisoners of war their reputations were tarnished for surrendering.
Speaking to the Westmeath Examiner, Tom Gunn, who was a 23 year old private when he travelled to the Congo, said that while he is proud that the State has decided to issue medals in recognition of their achievements, his thoughts are with his former comrades who have passed on.
According to Mr Gunn's research, there were 25 young men from the greater Mullingar area involved in the siege and he is one of only four still alive.
“I have mixed feelings for the the people who died. There were over 155 of us and now there are less than 45 left. Since the citation [in Athlone last September] four more have died.”
Mr Gunn believes that the men who served in Jadotville would not be receiving a state medal had it not being for the efforts of his former comrade John Gorman, who began campaigning 15 years ago, and Mullingar author Declan Power, whose book on the siege was adapted into a film last year.
“It's a great relief. Now we can sit back and relax for the rest of our lives, whatever we have left,” Mr Gunn says.