Kilkenny veteran honoured for heroics during Siege of Jadotville

ABOVE: Michael, John and Ann Dreelan. John, a Gowran man now living in the City, was a medic in the Irish Army and a member of A Company at the Siege of Jadotville, was a special guest for a presentation on the events of 1961 by Retd. Comdt Leo Quinlan

Col. Quinlan’s son Leo, himself now a retired Irish army commandant, has become the keeper of the story, and in City Hall, on Monday night, gave a detailed and often moving account of what happened to A Company in Jadotville, and afterwards.

From his own memories of being a teenager in the Curragh, cycling around to other army families with news of the men in Jadotville - including the news that they were alive and not all massacred as one newspaper had reported early in the siege - to a military career where he served with some of the men who had so bravely stood beside his father in the most life-threatening of circumstances, Leo has carefully curated the real story of A Company from military records, personal letters and diaries, interviews with men from A Company, and his own, family records.

It’s a tale of amazing heroism, camaraderie and proud service that soars far higher than any movie-scene heroics. And among a group of soldiers whose average age was 18 and a half. Click NEXT to continue the story and see more photographs.