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Eamonn Fitzgerald: Time to honour the heroes of Jadotville

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Eamonn Fitzgerald speaks to Kerry All-Ireland winner Noel Lucey about his brother, Jimmy, who survived the infamous Siege of Jadotville

Heroes should be remembered and it is never too late to do so. I have often been critical of the need for the Irish Senate, seeing it as a talking shop and an unnecessary huge expense on the Irish taxpayer.

However, I was very heartened to read the Seanad report last week and the resolution to honour 155 Irish soldiers, whose incredible bravery as peacekeeping heroes in Jadotville in 1961 has been for the most part ignored by successive governments for the past 59 years.

More about that later but first of all let us focus on two Kerrymen who were central to the mission, Pat Quinlan and Jimmy Lucey, who are sadly both now dead. Any of our readers who have seen the film ‘The Siege of Jadotville’ will appreciate the incredible story from 1961. Commandant Pat Quinlan was the leader of the A Company of the Irish Army's 35th Infantry Battalion. Jimmy Lucey played at midfield for Kerry in the 1962 All-Ireland final alongside Mick O’Connell. His brother Noel played at centre back that day and earlier this week I spoke to Noel, living in Glenflesk, about that 1962 final win and about his late brother Jimmy.

MAGICAL

My own memories of the 1962 All-Ireland are of listening to Micheál Ó Hehir creating those magical pictures for those of us at home listening to him on the wireless. We didn’t have a TV, even though that was the first All-Ireland televised live. I had it tuned in to Radio Éireann long before the throw-in and it was a good job, because there was an explosive start to the match. Kerry won the throw-in and unlike the modern ploy of working the ball in usually involving several inter-passing movements, the ball was dispatched route one to the forwards as Dr Eamonn coached at that time. No dilly dallying with it but send it in long to the forwards whose function is to score.

Gary McMahon was corner forward and he punched the ball past Aidan Brady in the Roscommon goal. Kerry were a goal ahead and all it took was 34 seconds, the fastest goal ever scored in an All-Ireland final and that still stands 59 years later. Gary has long since passed away but his younger brother Eoin, a solicitor in Newcastlewest, often told me that ever since then when he goes to an All-Ireland final he stands up for 34 seconds and only then can he relax and sit down on his seat knowing that his brother’s record stands for another year at least.

Johnny Culloty was the Kerry goalkeeper in 1962, when the Kingdom won the All-Ireland title for the 20th time.

My other memory of that game was of Jimmy Lucey catching a fine ball very early on in the game, then turning around and kicking it in towards his own goal providing an unexpected present for the unbelieving Roscommon forwards. Many friends said it happened much later in the game but Noel Lucey said my memory was correct. Goalkeepers were in no hurry to kick out the ball after a shock goal. Aidan Brady went long with the kick-out, as was the only game tactic of the day. No short kick out to the corner back. Jimmy Lucey fetched the O’Neills ball turned and kicked it in towards his own backs. I said to Noel that maybe Jimmy wanted to pass it to his brother. Maybe so, but he didn’t exert an accurate kick-pass. The ball landed some yards to Noel’s side, but any danger was quickly averted by that brilliant left halfback beside him, Mick O’Dwyer, who nipped into the ‘bearna baol’ and sent the leather up to either Dan McAuliffe or Jerry O’Riordan.

ATTACKED

Just one year earlier, Jimmy Lucey and 154 of his lightly armed fellow Irish soldiers were attacked from 7.48am on the morning of September 13, and all hell broke loose. They were holed up for five days fighting for their lives, in what is remembered as the Siege of Jadotville. They were sent to protect settlers and locals as part of a UN peacekeeping mission in the hostile and volatile situation in the Congo.

They were led by another Kerryman, Commandant Pat Quinlan from Caherdaniel parish. I got to know Pat in Dublin in the late 60s/early 70s and met him on a number of occasions where Kerrymen met. There was no ‘eirí in áirde’ in Pat Quinlan’s demeanour about his incredible leadership in Jadotville on September 13-17, 1961 and he didn’t say too much about their ordeal, although he was hurt by the reception they got when they came home.

They were publicly condemned. He was referred to as a coward for calling for a ceasefire and surrendering. He had no other choice with rations and waters supplies exhausted. The Irishmen’s bravery, masterful tactics and gallantry were all forgotten. In 2008 Maurice O'Keeffe recorded an audio documentary on Jadotville for South County Dublin Council. He found that the survivors had raw feelings about how they'd been portrayed.

"Crowds would abuse them at football matches. Some turned to drink or suffered terribly in other ways," O’Keeffe said.

"They weren't recognised for their courage; they were seen as traitors for surrendering.”

Sadly so many of the heroes of Jadotville suffered in later life with post-traumatic stress. Some died by suicide, alcoholism and other ailments. It reminded me of what happened to the heroes of 1916, who were very unpopular in the eyes of the Dubliners for drawing all this trouble and fighting to the capital. That changed after the executions of the leaders and they became heroes.

Hordes of indigenous Katangese, as well as French and Belgian mercenaries, attacked the Irish, and the terrible ordeal began. The peacekeeping force, aided by Quinlan's competence and tactical strategy, kept an estimated 3,000 attackers at bay. They lived through a five-day downpour of shells and bullets but with supplies exhausted and help unable to reach them, he called surrender.

Then followed six weeks of captivity as prisoners of war, not knowing if and when they would be executed. What is remarkable is that none of the 35th Irish Infantry Battalion were killed, whereas up to 300 of the attackers were reported as killed. Five of the Irish were injured.

Leader Quinlan kept their spirits up, kept them together, and kept them alive.

Jimmy Lucey survived and I asked his brother Noel earlier this week what he remembered about his brother’s ordeal and near death on UN peacekeeping duty.

“Not an awful lot really, but I do remember my mother and father listening in closely to the reports on the radio at that time at home in Caragh Lake. There was no television there at that time, not even electricity. The reports were coming in about the Irish soldiers being ambushed, then captured and imprisoned. They didn’t know whether Jimmy was dead or alive. It went on for a long time, day after day and I remember they survived and they were home before Christmas.”

And did Jimmy talk to you about Jadotville?

“He didn’t say much about it at all. But one day he did tell me that one of the other lads was shot in the arm and Jimmy pulled him in to safety and saved his life, otherwise he would have been riddled with bullets. I also remember that when they came home they didn’t get a great reception because some people didn’t like it that they surrendered after five days in the siege.”

KERRY TEAM

“We played together with Kerry,” Noel continued. “He was in the army base in Naas and I was in the Air Corps. We played in the Whit Sunday Tournament in the Park (the Fitzgerald Stadium) in May or June of 1962 against Roscommon and that was Jimmy’s first day playing for Kerry. We met them afterwards in the All-Ireland final. He played very well and was picked at midfield with Mick O’Connell. He played his first championship game with Kerry against Waterford in Listowel.”

Kerry then trounced Cork in the Munster final in Cork on July 15 and easily beat Dublin in the All-Ireland semi-final in Croke Park. Jimmy and O’Connell held sway in all those games, and then on to the final where they beat Roscommon 1-12 to 1-6.

Jimmy went back on two further UN Peace missions including Cyprus. Mo bhrón, he had a short life, surviving the attack in Jadotville and the other UN missions, winning that coveted medal with Kerry, but his life was short, too short. He died of cancer while still a very young man.

His brother Vincent played at right half forward on the Kerry team beaten by Galway 0-12 to 0-9 in the 1965 All-Ireland final. Paul Lucey, the fourth brother, certainly played with the Kerry juniors and if memory serves me well the four brothers won a Kerry SFC with Mid-Kerry.

I understand that some of those 155 Jadotville heroes are still alive. Some efforts were made over the years to honour the heroes of 1961. The A Company received a unit citation in Athlone some years ago. There were also talks of individual medals for distinguished service and gallantry.

Attempts were made by successive governments but it never happened and that that gap is still there.

Noel Lucey and his late wife Mary (nee Shine) had five daughters, Karen, Linda, Saundra, Áine and Deirdre, all great runners who have won numerous titles at local and national levels. I often saw them in full flight. With the Lucey DNA and coached by their father, they were winners in several arenas. Sadly, Linda passed away recently. She was married to Pat Eviston of Eviston House Hotel.

Back to the Seanad. Thanks to the efforts of Mark Daly, the Seanad cathaoirleach, Simon Coveney, Minister for Defence, Frances Black (the singer who said that that some of those soldiers  in Jadotville were as young as 15 year old) and other senators a new move is in train to award Distinguished Service Medals (DSM) and Military Medals for Gallantry (MMG)  to the Jadotville heroes.

2021 will be the 60th anniversary of the siege at Jadotville. I hope there is no obfuscation in the Seanad report and urge Minister Coveney and those who have the power to officially honour the heroes of Jadotville, to do so promptly, even if most of the awards are granted posthumously. Their relatives will appreciate the much longed for recognition.

 

Main pic: Jamie Dornan portraying Quinlan in the 2016 film 'The Siege of Jadotville', which is currently available on Netflix.

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Lakers aiming to secure first win at home to Malahide

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The Utility Trust St Paul’s Lakers will be hoping for a turn of fortunes this weekend after suffering a defeat in Week 2 of the 2025/26 National League season.

The club’s men’s team came up short in Jordanstown against the University of Ulster (91-70) having trailed by just four points heading into the final quarter. There were some positives – mainly the form of Steve Kelly, Sam Grant and Mark Sheehan – but head coach Luke O’Hea will be eager to pick up his first win of the Division 1 campaign at home to Malahide on Saturday. Tip-off at Killarney Sports and Leisure Centre is at 7.30pm.

Malahide have also lost both of their opening two matches, to Drogheda and Portlaoise.

Meanwhile, James Fleming’s women’s team maintained their 100% Super League record by beating the Panthers in Portlaoise on a scoreline of 62-72. The Killarney girls raced into an early lead but they had to weather a storm in the second half as the Panthers rallied admirably.

Maisie Burnham led the St Paul’s charge early doors with Lovisa Hevinder, Lorraine Scanlon and Leah McMahon making important contributions as the game wore on, but it was Tara Cousins who really made her mark in the fourth quarter, racking up 16 crucial points. Each one was significant as Paul’s tried to keep the Panthers at bay – in fact, the American guard registered her team’s final 10 points of the game to help secure a hard-fought 10-point victory.

“It was a good win on the road,” Hevinder told club PRO Enda Walshe. “Portlaoise is always a tough place to play and a difficult team to play against. I think we did a great job defensively, and at times we had really good flow on offence.”

Like their male counterparts, the St Paul’s women have a home game at Killarney Sports and Leisure Centre tomorrow. They host Munster rivals Fr Mathews with the tie tipping off at 4pm. Mathews are seeking their first win of the season.

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Killarney Athletic stalwart Donie does it for the love of the game

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Ahead of Killarney Athletic’s 60th anniversary, Adam Moynihan spoke to club stalwart and current chairman Donie Murphy about his passion for soccer (and the Blues)

Donie, Athletic have a big milestone coming up. Sixty years in existence. How and when did you first come to be involved with the club?

I joined the club in the 1974/75 season as an 18-year-old, so I have 50 years done. People think I didn’t play with anyone else but I joined from Woodlawn Rovers, which was a team made up of a group of friends who used to play down in Billy Doyle’s place at the back of Woodlawn. When that team disbanded, 90% of the boys joined Killarney Athletic. The rest is history, as they say. I didn’t move anywhere else after that.

What sort of footballer were you?

I would consider myself a whole-hearted player. I had a bit of pace. Not an awful lot of skill, but good in the air. I was committed and I expected much the same from everybody else. I played centre back all my career except for one game when I was coming back from injury and I was thrown up centre forward for the B team.

And? How did it go?

One game, one goal [laughs]. I had a 100% record.

Who were some of Athletic’s best players that you lined out with?

You had the likes of Brian McCarthy Senior, Denny Hayes, Pat Moynihan, Connie Doc, Pat Shea… You could throw Mikey Sullivan in there as well. He was a whole-hearted player.

What was the highlight of your playing career?

Well, we were runners-up and beaten finalists in a lot of things, but the one thing we did win was the Munster Junior Cup Kerry Area. It was a big thing at the time. We beat Tralee United 1-0. On the other end of the scale we had a relegation battle over in Castleisland. We had to win and we did, 1-0. We were mean enough in defence. Other than that, I played with the Kerry District League in the Oscar Traynor Cup for a couple of seasons, which was nice as well.

When did you hang up the boots?
I stopped playing with Athletic in 1990. But, of course, there was the Killarney Athletic 7-a-side then as well and I played in the over 35s for a few years after that.

You must have fond memories of the 7-a-side, going all the way back to the start in 1976?

The memories are great. Well, for the first tournament in 1976, Brian McCarthy refereed all the games and I was his sidekick. So I didn’t play, I was running the show while he was reffing. But I played with Killarney Hardware for many years alongside Connie Doc, Pat Shea, Seánie Shea… And DD Mulcahy and Dan Leary from Rathmore.

It would have been staged in the Áras Phádraig at the time. What was that like, for those who weren’t around back then?

Ah, it was unbelievable. We had 74 teams one year with every game being played on the one pitch. So it went on for nearly three months of the summer, because it had to. Everyone who was there saw every game. It is handier in Woodlawn, it takes half the time, but up in the Áras, you could see everything. You couldn’t replicate that atmosphere anywhere else. It was like a cauldron.

When did you first coach an underage team? Do you know how many teams you have trained down through the years?

I couldn’t tell you how many but I’ve been involved with a team every year since I started. I took a Community Games team in 1976 and I did that for a few years. And after that it was Killarney Athletic underage teams. I’m not training a team now but I am involved with the U5s and U6s. Now that is tough going [laughs].

So you’re coming up on 50 years of coaching underage teams? That’s a lot of players…

It’s a lot of players, and it’s a lot of names and faces to remember. Christmas in Killarney is a disaster. There are so many fellas away and they come back for Christmas and they’re saying, “Hey, Donie, how’re things?” I probably didn’t change a lot in the last 30 years, but they did!

What’s your coaching philosophy?

My philosophy is that communication is very important. Everybody should have a voice. I don’t like talking down to anybody. Once I can communicate my ideas to the kids and they buy into it, that’s the big thing. It’s fine going down training and doing the drills but sometimes they just need to be spoken to.

What is it about working with kids that you enjoy?

First of all, it’s the love of the game. But I do prefer to take – I won’t say underdogs – but maybe a B team, and see can I get them better than what they were. Rather than taking a team of stars who are going to be pretty good anyway, I like to bring on the next category of players. That’s what I measure myself against. Within a season, are we better against an opponent in the reverse fixture than we were the first time we played them? I like to see players that are maybe ‘middle of the road’ improving.

Do you find the kids easy or difficult to manage? Do many of them have long-term aspirations of playing professional football?

In general I’ve always found the kids to be great. Boys and girls. I think the girls listen a bit more than the boys [laughs]. Diarmuid O’Carroll and Brendan Moloney have shown that it is possible to go pro. And now Luke Doolan is with Kerry FC. He’s a man who might make it, and he came all the way up along through the ranks. So it is possible.

Do you watch a lot of soccer in your free time?

I do. My wife (Marie) will probably tell me I watch too much soccer. I’m an avid Spurs fan. But I do like to watch other sports as well to switch off.

How would you describe Killarney Athletic’s rivalry with Killarney Celtic?

In the early days it used to be a kind of friendly rivalry. But I think it’s more than friendship now! I would say it’s fierce. We both have so many teams, we’re playing each other at some age grade nearly every single weekend. You always want to win those games. But even going back to my playing days, if you never won another game, the Celtic game was the one you wanted to win. You have to win the derby game for bragging rights. Unfortunately they’ve have had a little bit more bragging rights than us lately but, you know yourself, the wheel might turn, hopefully.

How different is the soccer scene in Kerry today compared to when you first became involved?

There’s no comparison, really. It’s the pitches and the facilities that are the big thing. When I started playing, it was below in the Half Moon field (near Killarney House). It was a case of: jump the wall, put up the goals, line the pitch, play the game, take down the goals… Everything had to be put away. No dressing rooms or anything like that. But now with the facilities we have at the moment, if you haven’t everything in order for them, they’re not happy [laughs].

But the facilities and the all-weather training pitch help the club grow. We have a lot more teams now, going all down the ages, and obviously there’s a lot more coaching going on as well. The kids get into a system of playing, which is good.

Looking back over all your time at the club, what are your fondest Killarney Athletic memories?

For me it’s the people and the players you meet, and the friends you make. My involvement with Athletic has given me lifelong friends. That’s the best thing about it.

You must be looking forward to the club’s 60th celebration dinner?

I am. It’s a big night for the club and it’s a great opportunity to catch up with people you might not have met for a while. There will definitely be a bit of nostalgia. It’s also a great way for people to support the club. We’re developing a new pitch on a piece of land adjacent to our current pitch, so a percentage of ticket sales is going towards that project. Our 50th was a big celebration and a lot of things have happened since then. We have doubled in size membership-wise and girls now make up around 33% of the club. We’re hoping to go from strength to strength.

And, sadly, some of our club members have passed away since the last anniversary so they’ll be remembered on the night as well.

What are your hopes for the future of Killarney Athletic?

There are a lot of great people volunteering in the club so I don’t have any worries about the future. They will take the club onto the next level. Of course I hope we continue to win trophies, but most of all I hope the people involved, be they players or coaches or officers, will enjoy the experience. Everything else will follow after that.

The Killarney Athletic 60th Celebration Dinner takes place in the Gleneagle Hotel Ballroom on Friday, November 14 at 6.30pm. Tickets available via Audrey (087 4585697), Lisa (087 9365322) and Rose (087 6765064).

They can also be purchased from Colette at the Dromhall Hotel, Brian James, O’Neills and the Blackthorn.

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