Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There is a view that it is significant that medals were given to three Jadotville men for action two months later in Elizabethville. In addition, other medals were awarded to soldiers from other companies in the same battalion in the Congo for other actions elsewhere but no medals were awarded for Jadotville action, which is still the biggest battle with a foreign enemy in which the Irish Army has been involved since the formation of the State. The defence of Jadotville is recognised worldwide as the most perfect example of a perimeter defence and is now being taught as case history by the British Army, the Australian Army and the German Army and probably by other armies. There is a feeling in the community, which is lobbying all of us on this matter, that when he was Taoiseach, Deputy Enda Kenny made a direct commitment to offer the superior medal for extraordinary courage and the Military Medal for Gallantry, and that what has been awarded thus far is simply an acknowledgement and does not merit the action in which they were involved. This is the significant bone of contention. They feel that a commitment was made at the top of government but it has not been matched with follow-through.

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