HISTORY: The story of a young UN soldier from Thurles serving in the Congo

A young Irish soldier in 1960 at eighteen years of age helped make military history a long way from Tipperary.

The late Private Patrick Cullen was a member of the 650-strong 32nd Infantry Battalion (ONUC) of Irish United Nations Forces, which was the first-ever unit of the Permanent Defence Force (PDF) to serve abroad.

Sometime before he died he recalled for me his own story of a heroic “adventure”.

The late Private Cullen was the only Thurles man to have served with that history-making unit, and in 1985 he was invited by his Commanding Officer, Lt Colonel Buckley, to attend the 25th-anniversary commemoration of the event on August 10 when the Southern Command contingent of the unit held a commemoration in Collins Barracks, Cork.

Who would have thought as the teenage Private Cullen left for the Congo in 1960 that one day, nine of the soldiers who lost their lives in the Niemba ambush would be remembered in the St Mary’s Garden of Remembrance in Thurles?

Their relatives visited that Garden, thanks to the efforts of the Durlas Eile Ui Fhogartaigh historical group in Thurles.

Some years before his death, the late Private Cullen, who was a prominent member of the United Nations Veterans Association told me about his Congo experience.

He said:

“Well, it was an adventure, I will say that. We were armed with the 303 rifle and not the FN, as stated in some reports. The FN was first used by the 34th Battalion. We travelled out for our six months long tour of duty on United States Air Force Combat Troop carriers, and we returned by Globemaster.

“It took about three days to get out, and it was almost enough for us. On the way, we had stops in France, Libya, Nigeria and into Leopoldville.

“Then we had to go another 1,000 miles. Then it was off to Kivu Province.” We were, of course, volunteers,” he said.

The late Private Cullen served with the Irish Army for three years and also spent some time with the Marine Rescue Centre, then based at Haulbowline Naval Base and later in Shannon.

"This is the service which notes distress signals and would have been the first to know about the Jumbo Indian Jet Disaster off the Cork Coast,” he said.

For his service in Kamina, Katanga for six months, from July to January, Private Patrick Cullen was awarded the Bronze Service Medal, which was presented at a ceremony in McKee Barracks, Dublin, on Easter Sunday, 1960.

After the presentation, the unit marched in a parade through Dublin to beacknowledged as heroes by the people of Ireland.

Patrick Cullen, at eighteen years of age, was one of the youngest in the Congo.

He was later called to the Border as a Reserve in 1969 –the time of the famous:

“We will not stand idly by,” speech by the then Taoiseach, the late Jack Lynch.

Patrick Cullen referred to his own part in the Congo operation as “an adventure.”

But newspaper reporters have been more forthcoming than the Thurles soldier.

An Irish Independent reporter had described the Congo Mission in 1960 as “horrendous brutality, destruction and complexity in which, before the United Nations withdrew, 26 Irishmen and many other UN troops (from Finland, Indonesia, Malaya, Nigeria, Canada and other nations) and hundreds of thousands of Africans were to die.

Before he died, the late Private Cullen produced for me his pay book, which revealed that the allowance for the men was three shillings and sixpence (17p ) a day from the Irish Army and six shillings a day from the UN Authorities.

While in The Congo, a fact appreciated by the non-ranking serving men, officers and men got the same allowance.

“We were all treated equally in that respect in the Congo,” said the late Private Cullen.

He recalled how “like a flash of light” for the PDF (Permanent Defence Force), men the Congo operation was in the days before they set out to serve abroad.

“Even when we saw the United States Lockheed Hercules Troop Transporters at Baldonnell, we could hardly believe it was all true.”

It is interesting to speculate that if the 32nd Battalion had not volunteered for the Congo that the whole UN operation programme of today might be entirely different or non-existent.

Ostensibly, the men were going out into Africa, “in the holy cause of helping a sorely tried country, newly emancipated.

The late Private Cullen was stationed in Albertville at one stage, and when news came through that Trooper Kenny had been found wounded but safe after the Niemba Ambush “a great cheer went up around the base as we had been looking for him for some time.”

Patrick Cullen was the only Private who, with his Company, was on secondment to the 33rd Battalion.

He was later to witness then President Tsombe of Katanga lay a wreath for the Irish UN dead in Albertville.

Mr Tsombe was later to be killed himself.

When the Taoiseach of the time, the late Sean Lemass, took the salute at the GPO as O/C Lieutenant Buckley led the parade through Dublin’s packed streets on July 27, 1960, he little thought what a chapter was about to be written by our first UN Troops on operations abroad.

The late Archbishop of Dublin, Most Rev Dr McQuaid, told the six hundred and fifty-strong 32nd Battalion:

“You are leaving on a mission of peace. For that reason, you will be welcomed by the African people. …”

Private Cullen smiled back in 1985 as he showed me a photograph of himself with an African gentleman.

“They only shook hands with you after you had dropped your arms and ammunition,” he said.

Back in those days, the soldiers wore Bulls Wool uniforms in the Congo.

That was to change eventually, of course.

The late Mr Cullen was among those invited by the then Minister for Defence, Mr Tony Killeen, to the ceremonies at Casement Aerodrome, Baldonnell to mark the 50th anniversary of the Irish Defence Force’s deployment to the Congo in 1960.

At Baldonnell he met many former comrades from all over Irelandand the memorable, colourful and nostalgic occasion was covered by Photographer, Brid Ryan, for the Tipperary Star.

While in Africa Patrick Cullen met Irish Independent reporter the late Raymond Smith from Thurles, who was covering the Irish angle on the Congo story and who wrote a number of books on his experiences there, including Under A Blue Flag and The Fighting Irish in the Congo.

Mr Smith later worked with the Sunday Independent and was the author of numerous books, mainly on sport and politics.

The Commemoration on August 10, 1985, included a reception at the NCOs Mess in Collins Barracks, Cork.