CONGO - AN IRISH AFFAIR

SHOWING AT SGC MAYO MOVIE WORLD, CASTLEBAR ON SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 24th AT 9.00pm

The story of "A" Company, 35th Battalion of the Irish Army United Nations contingent, sent to the Congo in 1961, who became involed in war with mercenary-led Katangese separatists funded by a multinational mining company.

"Life only demands from you the strength that you possess.  Only one achievement is possible; not to run away."Dag Hammarskjold, Secretary General of the UN, killed trying to   rescue the Irish soldiers of A Company, besieged at Jadotville.

"We didn't come here to kill Africans, we came to protect them"Comdt Pat Quinlan, irish Army 35th Battalion.

"The UN is responsible for all the massacres"Pres. Moise Tshombe of Katanga

For one week the fate of the United Nations was in the hands of a battalion of Irish soldiers, surrounded at Jadotville, Congo

155 men were threatened with annihiliation by mercenaries hired by a giant mining company which was trying to tear Congo apart, backed by Britain, France and Belgium.The eyes of the world are on Katanga, a fabulously wealthy breakaway province, controlled by white European colonists, mercenaries and giant mining companies. After the Prime Minister of Congo Patrice Lumumba was murdered by the Katangese, the UN determined to bring the breakaway province back to Congo. An Irishman, General Sean Mac Eoin was made Supreme Commander of the UN forces in the Congo,  Conor Cruise O'Brien took charge of the UN in Katanga and hundreds of Irish soldiers poured into the breakaway province. In September 1961 the UN went to war against Katangese troops and white mercenaires.

The questions the world asked were: how much force can be used to justify upholding a UN resolution, when "mission creep" resulted in the UN using fighter jets and bombers on a city filled with civilians to forcibly bring a rebel government to its knees. This was 1961, fifty years later are we any the wiser?

"the honesty and integrity of the soldiers' testimonials make for compulsive viewing" Donald Clarke The Irish Times, Sept. 2nd