Siege at Jadotville

Siege at Jadotville
Author: Declan Power
Publisher: Maverick House
Total Pages: 249
Release: 2015-01-08
Genre: History
ISBN: 1908518065

During the course of operations, a company of Irish troops was deployed to protect the inhabitants of the village of Jadotville. Not long after deployment, the troops found themselves heavily out-numbered and engaged in a pitched battle with native Congolese soldiers led by white mercenary officers. In addition to the overwhelming odds, the Irish also had to contend with being strafed by a jet and had no airpower or anti-aircraft defences to defend themselves.Appeals for re-supply from UN forces were to no avail. There were a number of attempts by Irish troops in the vicinity to mount a relief operation for their surrounded comrades. However, a mixture of superior fire, physical obstacles and political machinations within the UN led to abject failure. But after numerous rescue attempts failed and the Irish had fought to their last rounds of ammunition and were already using bayonets in hand-to-hand-fighting, Comdt Quinlan decided against the needless bloodshed of his men and surrendered. Though many of the men fought bravely, some going on to be decorated for valour at later stages, they were made to feel inferior within the army. To have served at Jadotville was something to have been ashamed of.

Siege at Jadotville

Siege at Jadotville
Author: Declan Power
Publisher:
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2016-10-06
Genre:
ISBN: 9781908518248

Siege at Jadotville is Declan Power's acclaimed book on the men of A Company, 35th Battalion of the Defence Forces, who were deployed to protect the village of Jadotville in the Congo in 1961. Days after deployment, A Company were out-numbered and engaged in battle with native Congolese soldiers led by white mercenary officers. Appeals for re-supply from UN forces went unheard. Eventually the company was forced to surrender. Siege at Jadotville has been adapted for film, staring Jamie Dornan, which is due for broadcast by Netflix in the Autumn of 2016.

Heroes of Jadotville

Heroes of Jadotville
Author: Rose Doyle
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2016
Genre: Congo (Democratic Republic)
ISBN: 9781848404885

"It is a pity that we, who never believed in the use of force, must suffer for the blunders of little dictators and stupid military leaders."--Comdt Patrick Quinlan, Jadotville, Sept. 1961 ***This new edition from the soldiers' perspectives coincides with the forthcoming Netflix film starring Jamie Dornan. In 1961, during the United Nations intervention in the Katangan conflict in the Congo, central Africa, a company of Irish peacekeeping troops, led by Comdt Patrick Quinlan, was forced to surrender to soldiers loyal to Katanga's prime minister, Moise Tshombe. Originally dispatched to protect Belgian colonists in Jadotville, they were isolated, without water, supplies, or support when they were attacked and forced to defend themselves in a brutal five-day battle. Shamefully neglected by their superiors, they were portrayed as cowards upon their return home. Rose Doyle draws on material provided by Leo Quinlan, son of Comdt Quinlan, as well as interviews, reports, journals and letters to bring answers to an episode that has been under-represented. She blows the lid off the real story of what happened, exposing how Irish peacekeeping soldiers became pawns in an international ploy for control of Katanga and its vast mineral wealth. *** "by far the fullest account of . . . what became known in the Irish Army as the Jadotville Affair" --The Irish Times Subject: Military History, History, Irish Studies]

The Dark Confides

The Dark Confides
Author: Steven Maxwell
Publisher: Maverick House
Total Pages: 250
Release:
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1908518677

Sean Alcott is pulled from the gutter when an undercover operation goes wrong. His next assignment involves infiltrating a crime family run by fearsome matriarch Aileen Molloy. He immerses himself in his new life and eventually falls for Aileen’s daughter Wren but everything changes when the body of a biker cop is found dumped outside a police station with a list of undercover officers nailed to its forehead. Alcott’s name is on the list. Yet for Alcott, who has found purpose behind the mask, there is something far worse awaiting him than his possible death, something involving his lover’s own masks and secrets.

Into Action

Into Action
Author: Dan Harvey
Publisher: Merrion Press
Total Pages: 254
Release: 2017-03-13
Genre: History
ISBN: 1785371142

Into Action is the story of the Irish Defence Forces’ role as international peacekeepers since 1960. While primarily posted to uphold the transition towards peace in overseas conflicts, they have at times inevitably been forced to fight back against often aggressive opposition. Dan Harvey’s fascinating and accessible history follows the major military incidents in the peacekeepers’ sixty-year campaign, from Niemba, the Siege at Jadotville, and Elizabethville in the Congo to At-Tiri in Lebanon, and Durbol in Syria. These are to name just a few of the military engagements that involved supreme bravery on behalf of the Irish Defence Forces and, at times, ended in terrible tragedy. Dan Harvey’s detailed account of the military operations they were involved in reveal the defence forces’ effective responses to crisis and conflict; how they stood firm during ethnically-motivated rioting in Gracancia or intervened in the midst of a clash between Chadian government forces and rebel attackers, and how the Irish nation was halted into mourning in November 1960 by news that nine soldiers of the 33rd Irish Battalion had been killed by Baluba warriors near Niemba in the Congo. These are the deeds and tragedies that have come to define Ireland’s role in international peacekeeping. Into Action reveals the true story of this role and the immense courage that have underlined its operations from the beginning.

The IRA in the Twilight Years

The IRA in the Twilight Years
Author: Uinseann MacEoin
Publisher:
Total Pages: 1002
Release: 1997
Genre: History
ISBN:

The period of 1923-1948 in Irish Republic history, carried the sombre undertones of an unrealized and unrealizable ideal. In spite of riots, shootings and death, 500 unconvicted men eked out the war years in Tintown University. Here, they tell their story, spanning 25 years of history.

Zoo Station

Zoo Station
Author: David Downing
Publisher: Soho Press
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2007
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1569474540

“Zoo Station is a beautifully crafted and compelling thriller with a heart-stopping ending as John Russell learns the personal faces of good and evil. An unforgettable read.”-Charles Todd, author of the Inspector Ian Rutledge series Praise for previous books by David Downing: “The author combines his erudition with an excellent political imagination. He writes well, clearly and has a nice wit.”-The Sunday Times (London) “An atmospheric thriller . . . furious pacing.”-Booklist “An elegant rapid-fire spy story.”-The Virginian-Pilot “Compulsive reading.”-The Sunday Telegraph (London) By 1939, Anglo-American journalist John Russell has spent over a decade in Berlin, where his son lives with his mother. He writes human-interest pieces for British and American papers, avoiding the investigative journalism that could get him deported. But as World War II approaches, he faces having to leave his son as well as his girlfriend of several years, a beautiful German starlet. When an acquaintance from his old communist days approaches him to do some work for the Soviets, Russell is reluctant, but he is unable to resist the offer. He becomes involved in other dangerous activities, helping a Jewish family and a determined young American reporter. When the British and the Nazis notice his involvement with the Soviets, Russell is dragged into the murky world of warring intelligence services. David Downing grew up in suburban London and is the author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction for adults and children, including The Moscow Option, Russian Revolution 1985, and The Red Eagles. He lives with his wife, an American acupuncturist, in Guildford, England. From the Hardcover edition.

Katanga 1960-63

Katanga 1960-63
Author: Christopher Othen
Publisher: The History Press
Total Pages: 361
Release: 2015-09-07
Genre: History
ISBN: 0750965800

In King Leopold II's infamous Congo 'Free' State at the turn of the century, severed hands became a form of currency. But some in the Belgian government had no sense of historical shame, as they connived for an independent Katanga state in 1960 to protect Belgian mining interests. What happened next was extraordinary. It was an extremely uneven battle. The UN fielded soldiers from twenty nations, America paid the bills, and the Soviets intrigued behind the scenes. Yet to everyone's surprise the new nation's rag-tag army of local gendarmes, jungle tribesmen and, controversially, European mercenaries, refused to give in. For two and a half years Katanga, the scrawniest underdog ever to fight a war, held off the world with guerrilla warfare, two-faced diplomacy and some shady financial backing. It even looked as if the Katangese might win. Katanga 1960–63 tells, for the first time, the full story of the Congolese province that declared independence and found itself at war with the world.

To Katanga and Back

To Katanga and Back
Author: Conor Cruise O'Brien
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Total Pages: 404
Release: 2015-01-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 0571323340

July 1960: The newly independent Congo is hit by the secession of its mineral rich-province Katanga, led by Moïse Tshombe and backed by Belgium and Britain. June 1961: Dr Conor Cruise O'Brien arrives in Katanga as Special Representative of United Nations Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld, his task (under a UN resolution) to arrest and repatriate the mercenaries and foreign interests propping up Tshombe. The consequences of this mission will prove fateful for all parties. This is the story of how a brilliant Irish diplomat found himself in Africa amid one of history's maelstroms. O'Brien reconstructs the complex, tragic, sometimes comic events of a drama in which he found himself controversially at centre stage. The result is history from the inside: a valuable study of 'the game of nations', and of the UN's unique functioning and malfunctioning.