Seige of Jadotville

twinytwo

Just thinking and maybe you guys can answer this but why did it take so long for the irish government to offically recognise what had happened. Where there ever any medals given? I do know pat quinlan tried until he passed away to get the recognition for the men.

Also i was once told that america and other countries but pressure on the irish government not to mount a rescue attempt( obviously i dont know if this is true because they did try to get to them... and for the life of me i cant remember the name of the defence minister at the time) but it was hinted at the possibility of leaving the men there.

neilled

twinytwo wrote: »

Just thinking and maybe you guys can answer this but why did it take so long for the irish government to offically recognise what had happened. Where there ever any medals given? I do know pat quinlan tried until he passed away to get the recognition for the men.

Also i was once told that america and other countries but pressure on the irish government not to mount a rescue attempt( obviously i dont know if this is true because they did try to get to them... and for the life of me i cant remember the name of the defence minister at the time) but it was hinted at the possibility of leaving the men there.

The men in question were deliberatly manouvered into a position they didn't need to be in by the Belgians in order to "protect" their white citizens in the breakaway Katangan areas. In fact these turned out to be the hostile forces during the engagement. Regarding the interference of other countries, I believe that there was an attempt to bring in airsupport in defence of the Irish company that were under attack or specifically to go air to air against the Fouga that was straffing the troops. In case your wondering the Fouga was still in service with the air corps till the 1990's.

The whole thing seemed to be fairly botched from the word go, little training before leaving other than drilling, terrible uniforms, equipment and antique rifles. I'd suggest the lack of recognition was due to ass covering from the higher spectrum of military and political authorities who didn't want to be connected with the percieved embarasment of having an entire company captured which hadn't taken casualties and were let down by their own side. Fair enough if they'd held up a white flag without a shot then there may have been a case, but it would seem that despite overwhelming firepower being possesed by the attackers which included air support, the defenders inflicted heavy casualties on them and fought until out of ammo and water. Their position was constantly undermined from UN HQ on the groun and directions from new york.

I'd suggest going out and buying rosemary dolyes book on the same subject. Even if you allow for the fact she's related to quinlan and you'd expect some bias, it is a good read and she seems to have done an excellent job and got the facts right.

Having said all that, if A Coy had been wiped out at Jadotville one wonders how this would have impacted on the Defence and Foreign policy of Ireland in the aftermath. Would it have become insular and withdrawn even further from the world or would it have rearmed and reengaged?

twinytwo

its a bit sad though to think that in any other country these guys would have been sung home as heros

Local-womanizer

You should get the book wrote by Quinlans neice.

Very intresting read I most say and covers everything that went on during that week in good detail.