UN service recalled by retired soldiers

SOME 70 members and friends of the 36th Infantry Battalion gathered in Glasnevin Cemetery yesterday morning to mark the 50th anniversary of their unit.

The group stood in silence with heads bowed at the cemetery’s United Nations plot as company quarter master Sgt Jim Clarke laid a wreath acknowledging the unit’s contribution to UN peacekeeping duties since its inception.

Piper Sgt Anthony Byrne of the 15th Infantry Battalion played a lament for comrades killed in overseas tours which included service in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cyprus and Lebanon. Among those in attendance yesterday was Benny Hopkins of Carlow town who was part of the first peacekeeping trip by the 36th Battalion, which was to the Congo.

“We were flying in, in December 1961, when the plane came under fire” he told The Irish Times.

“They told us all to get down but I stayed upright – if you were stretched out on the floor I reckoned you would be a bigger target for bullets from below,” he said.

Mr Hopkins who retired in 1974 after 23 years with the Army said he thought the aircraft was hit by about 40 bullets.

“Fortunately no one was killed but it was a frightening time,” he said. Speaking after he laid the wreath at the UN plot Sgt Clarke also recalled unit’s first service in Congo.

“They counted about 40 bullet holes. There was fuel leaking everywhere when we landed and the fear was our hob-nailed boots would cause a spark as we got off the plane.”

It was, he said, an appropriate introduction to the country where the Irish lost four men in the first 10 days of the operation.

However, the Irish distinguished themselves well in the Congo within days of landing there, said Danny Bradley of Belfast, another of yesterday’s attendees at Glasnevin cemetery.

Mr Bradley passed around maps of Lubumbashi in the Democratic Republic of Congo, downloaded from the internet.

The city was formerly Elizabethville and the maps showed the area where the 36th Battalion had one of its most celebrated successes.

The unit attacked a railway tunnel at Elizabethville which covered a vital road and rail approach held by mercenaries and Katangan gendarmerie.

Three Irish lives were lost in the attack which resulted in international recognition for the 36th and the awarding of 14 medals.

Also among those who were in attendance yesterday was Jim Cole from Cork who served with the unit for 24 years before retiring in 1984. Mr Cole was wearing medals for service in the Congo, Cyprus and the Lebanon.

He said he retired in 1984 after 24 years service. He was joined by Michael Butler originally from Glenmalure in Co Wicklow but now living in Kells, Co Meath.

Mr Butler said he spent six months in the Congo and retired from the Army in 1973.

A number of former members recalled how former taoiseach Brian Cowen had singled out the 36th Battalion for special mention when making a speech on the Irish contribution to UN peacekeeping, in July 2010.