One of the last remaining soldiers who inspired the Hollywood film The Siege of Jadotville has died. 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 during a United Nations intervention in the conflict when a group of Irish soldiers were attacked by Katanganese troops.
Despite a lack of ammunition, the men resisted the assault from 5,000 Katanganese for six days before being forced to surrender.
Led by Comdt Pat Quinlan, not one of the men died during the assault despite being overwhelmingly outnumbered. After their capture, they were held as prisoners of war for a month.
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The stand-off was recreated in a 2016 Netflix film starring Irish actor Jamie Dornan.
Mr Bradley, from Killea, Co Donegal died on Friday and will be buried after funeral mass at the Church of Immaculate Conception, Killea at 11am on Monday followed by interment in Newtowncunningham cemetery.
In February, 2018 he was honoured at a special ceremony at Killea Parish Hall hosted by the Irish UN Veterans Association.
From the townland of Garshooey, he was awarded the Jadotville Medal (An Bonn Jadotville) which is inscribed with “cosaint chalma” and “misneach”, which translate as “valiant defence” and “courage”.
In 2016, then Minister with Responsibility for Defence, Paul Kehoe, marked the 55th anniversary of the Siege by presenting a unit citation to the veterans in recognition of their bravery and heroism. This was the first time such an award was made within the Defence Forces.