Ireland’s forgotten battle - Kilkenny Jadotville veteran honoured in his hometown

ABOVE: John Roche, Ex Sgt and Member of St. Michael’s Organisation for Ex Servicemen in Athy, Kevin Carton ex Colonel, Chair of St. Michael’s, Athy, John Dreelan, Jadotville Veteran, Eugene Doyle, Community Radio Kilkenny

Speaking in Kilkenny City Hall, Leo Quinlan said that if anyone hasn’t seen the Siege of Jadotville movie it is really worth watching.

Textbook Defence
He has dedicated much of his life to campaigning for the bravery medals recommended by his father to be awarded to members of A Company.

He first gave his presentation on the Siege of Jadotville in 2016, at the request of the British Army. His audience included military leaders from the US and Canada, Norway, Sweden, Holland and Germany. Afterwards, he was asked why they had never heard about it. Since then he has spoken to many more national defence forces and his father’s tactics from Jadotville are studied by military students. Pat Quinlan’s action is cited in military textbooks worldwide as the best example of the use of the so-called ‘perimeter defence.’

In 2020 Leo represented his father in Brussels for St Patrick’s Day. Military attachés from other countries had heard of Jadotville and he was told by them that they regarded his father’s biggest achievement as bringing all his men home alive.

During his presentation not only did Leo Quinlan give an insightful overview of the events of September 1961 in Jadotville, but he placed it in the international political and economic context of the time. Explaining the Congo was as big as Europe at the time. The country had gained its independence in June 1960 and in July the mine-rich province of Katanga broke away. The same month the UN were called in as peacekeepers.
They weren’t welcomed, not even by the local white population.

A Company arrived in the Congo in June 1961 and carried out their six-month duty before, and after the siege and their time as prisoners of war.
They were involved in guarding the airport in Elizabethville, managing the influx of Baluba refugees and the deportation of mercenaries.

Monday’s event was the first to be hosted by Cllr Joe Malone since his election as Mayor of Kilkenny. An army veteran himself, he had wanted to honour the men of Jadotville in some way, and was surprised to learn recently that John Dreelan was his neighbour.

Our Heroes
Eugene Doyle, from Community Radio Kilkenny City, and MC for the event, said the Siege of Jadotville could be summed up in the words heroic, against the odds, military leadership, pride, but then moral injury and unfinished business.

Remembering Jadotville is not celebrating death but celebrating bravery and camaraderie, and actions that ensured all the men came home safely to their families. This should be celebrated in the medals recommended by Pat Quinlan for the actions during the siege, he said.

The lives of some of those veterans may have turned out very differently if the medals had been awarded, Mr Doyle said. “Instead they were treated like cowards. Jadotville is Ireland’s forgotten battle. In another country they would have been national heroes,” he said.
“To us, they are our heroes.”

He went on to say that to lose no lives in Jadotville Pat Quinlan had to be a superb commander, but so did his men, some of whom were just 16 years old.

Among those in attendance at the event were representatives of ONE Kilkenny, PDFORRA, representatives from James Stephens Barracks in Kilkenny and many retired members of the defence forces, their families and friends. Click NEXT for the final chapter.