One of the last Irish war heroes who inspired the Hollywood movie The Siege of Jadotville has passed away.
Former Private Robert ‘Bobby’ Bradley was one of the 158 soldiers of A Company 35th Battalion who were deployed to Central Africa in 1961 amid political turmoil in the Congo.
The siege happened in 1961 during the United Nations intervention in the conflict when a group of Irish soldiers were attacked by Tshombe’s troops while at mass.
Despite a lack of ammunition, the men resisted the assault from 5,000 Katanganese troops for six days before being forced to surrender.
Led by Comdt. Pat Quinlan, not one of the men perished during the assault despite being overwhelmingly outnumbered, and were held as Prisoners of War for a month.
The stand-off led to the making of the film of the same name starring Irish actor Jamie Dornan.
Bobby, from Killea, passed away yesterday and will be buried following funeral mass at the Church of Immaculate Conception, Killea at 11am on Monday followed by interment in Newtowncunningham cemetery.
One of Bobby’s proudest moments came in February, 2018 when he was honoured at a special ceremony today at Killea Parish Hall hosted by the Irish UN Veterans Association.
The Jadotville tiger, from Garshooey, was the proud recipient of the Jadotville Medal (An Bonn Jadotville) which is inscribed with ‘cosaint chalma’ and ‘misneach’, meaning “valiant defence” and “courage”.
A total of 11 of these troops were from Donegal; Robert Bradley, James Gormley, Harry Hegarty, Michael McDermott, the late William George Duffy, the late James Harper, the late Patrick Gildea, Leo Boland, the late Patrick Nicell, the late Seamus O’Kane, and the late Sean Kerr.
In 2016, then Minister with Responsibility for Defence, Paul Kehoe marked the 55th anniversary of the Siege in by presenting a Unit Citation to the veterans in recognition of their bravery and heroism.
This was the first time a Unit Citation has been awarded within the Defence Forces.
