One of two Irish Soldiers who survived a fierce battle with tribesmen in The Congo almost 50 years ago has finally been awarded a medal.

Former private Joseph Fitzpatrick was presented with a custom-made medal by Defence Minister Willie O'Dea to officially recognise his service on the United Nation's peace-keeping mission in 1960.

The ceremony took place at Cathal Brugha Barracks in Dublin in front of Irish troops soon to depart for UN peacekeeping duties in the Lebanon.

The Minister praised the efforts of Mr. Fitzpatrick in a battle at Niemba when Baluba tribesmen ambushed a contingent of 11 Irish troops.

He was aged 18 when he and his comrades fought the large numbers of heavily armed tribesmen.  Only two Irish soldiers survived the ambush.

"Mr. Fitzpatrick showed great courage and tenacity through quite an ordeal.  We thought this was an appropriate way to recognise him," said the Minister.

Mr. Fitzpatrick spent decades seeking recognition for his experiences through staging protests, writing letters and making appeals.

Official sources now admit that discrepancies over the details of the ambush in which guns, axes, clubs and poisoned arrows were used, contributed to the delay of any official recognition for Mr. Fitzpatrick and the massacre's only other survivor, Thomas Kenny.

Initial army accounts stated nine of the Irish soldiers and up to 26 members of the Baluba tribe were killed in the fighting.

HONOUR

Casualty Anthony Browne (19) was posthumously awarded the first-ever An Bonn Mileata Calmachta (Military Medal for Gallantry), the Army's highest honour.  In the official report, Browne was then recognised for sacrificing his life for Mr. Kenny.

In the decades following the incident, however, the circumstances surrounding Mr. Browne's death were called into question and in 2006 the official report was altered and calls for recognition of the massacre's two survivors were renewed and finally agreed.

Mr. Kenny has been offered a similar commendation for his experiences but he has not yet accepted it.  He was reportedly absent from yesterday's ceremony because of an illness.

Mr. Fitzpatrick, however, accepted that he may now feel some type of closure:  "The Army, the big brass, have apologised.

"The whole thing of it is that people who have called you a coward for 47 years can't call you a coward any more.  And if they did, you've got a medal around your neck to prove them wrong."

Evening Herald 19/04/2007

Alan O'Keeffe