Joe Flaherty (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Given the week that is in, I will focus on the Siege of Jadotville, which raged for four days 51 years ago this week. It was a stand-out moment in this country's proud history of overseas peacekeeping duties.

In Longford-Westmeath, we are especially proud of our association with this chapter in our peacekeeping history. Fifteen soldiers from County Longford and a further 22 from Westmeath featured in Jadotville. Indeed, the two counties accounted for more than 20% of the complement of soldiers there. One of those who featured was Michael Tighe, a Longford town man. He is currently recuperating from surgery, but he has been at the forefront of trying to get the recognition that he and his fellow soldiers have long been denied.

Regrettably, it has been decided that the surviving soldiers will not be awarded the bravery medals recommended by their commanding officer, Colonel Pat Quinlan. The soldiers have in recent times received many honours and accolades as a result of the campaign headed up by the late colonel's son, Leo, but, alas, they have been denied the individual medals for bravery which were recommended for them following the siege in the Congo in 1961.

During the siege, which was subsequently dramatised in a Netflix movie, 150 Irish peacekeepers with no battle experience held out for an unprecedented five days against 3,000 mercenaries and local militia without suffering a single fatality. Alas, for years afterwards, Colonel Quinlan and his men were derided in Ireland because they had eventually surrendered. Sadly, several of the soldiers who featured in Jadotville subsequently died by suicide.

After achieving recognition for the achievements of his father and the men in recent years, Leo Quinlan has continued to campaign for them to be awarded the distinguished service medal or military medal for gallantry - the two highest honours afforded to anybody in the proud Irish Defence Forces. He has thankfully found the original list of recommendations made by his father after the battle which put forward 33 men for these awards. Eight of those men are still alive, including our own Michael Tighe.

I appreciate and understand the Department's position in that both medals are time bound - two years in the case of the military medal for gallantry, MMG, and four years in the case of the distinguished service medal, DSM. The Department also makes the point that it feels that the issue was comprehensively dealt with in 1965. However, that is not a view shared by many members of the public, and especially in Longford-Westmeath where we have a great tradition and affinity with those who featured in the Siege of Jadotville.

The Minister himself is on record as having said that he will consider any new information to support a reconsideration to award the medals. Equally, I know the Minister is incredibly proud of this nation's record in peacekeeping, overseas duty and the Jadotville Congo era, which is a hugely important part of our military history. I also understand that there is a precedent that will enable the Minister with responsibility for defence to order the rules on time limits to be waived in certain circumstances and I earnestly hope that the Minister will give this due consideration.

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