Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The name Walter Hegarty is not known by many of us in the House. He passed away last night. He was the holder of a distinguished service medal from the Defence Forces, which he won in the Congo in the 1960s. He was one of 155 men who were part of the siege of Jadotville, and it has taken us the best part of 50 years to recognise these men. However, we have not recognised them in the way they should have been recognised. Slowly but surely these men are passing away and they are being consigned to history. One of the greatest military achievements of our Defence Forces took place at Jadotville. How 155 men could hold off 3,500 for a period of time under the command of Commandant Quinlan is studied by soldiers in armies throughout the world.

I have spoken to people from Jadotville. One of the saddest things for me was last Thursday night, when I attended a lecture in Galway and sitting over my left shoulder was a colleague with whom I served at Renmore barracks in Galway and I never knew he was in Jadotville. I spoke to Leo Quinlan last night, and he did his Ranger training with a former veteran from Jadotville who he never knew was there. Such was the level of hurt and embarrassment they had because world's political people decided Jadotville was something they did not want to talk about. They wanted to bury it. They wanted to forget about it because it was a total screw-up by politicians in the United Nations.

The Minister has gone a long way, as has the Government and the previous one, towards undoing some of the wrongs done but we have not gone far enough. Commandant Quinlan, the commander in Jadotville, named nine people who were to be awarded medals. None of the nine were ever awarded their medals. A photocopy of the citation awarded, which was a unit citation, was given to those living and the relatives of the deceased. This is simply not good enough. There is unfinished work with respect to Jadotville. Senator Mac Lochlainn and I have tabled a motion that will be brought to the floor of the House and I hope we, as the Upper House of the Oireachtas, will come together and support it. I ask that we do so. We cannot allow more Jadotville veterans to pass away forgotten and consigned to a blank history.