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Lt Col Sean Cosden; Dan Garland of IUNVA; Lt Col Joe Aherne
(retd) of ARCO; Brig Gen Jerry Enright (retd) of 33 Inf Bn; Comdt
Earnan Naughton of RACO; Mark Scally of PDFORRA; Comdt
Eugene Gargan of RDFRA; Declan Pendred of the Irish Naval
Association; Noel Cullen of the Royal British Legion; and Martin
Coyne ONEt (on behalf of the American Legion in Ireland). Also
present was former Swedish army officer Stig von Bayer who
served in the Congo at the time of the ambush.
Even though most of these trailblazing peacekeepers have
now retired, their memories of the Congo and places such
as Elizabethville, Jadotville and Niemba are still very strong
within the Defence Forces as we continue to remember and
honour them.
On the previous day, Friday 8th November, members of the
IUNVA, with families and friends of troops of 33 Inf Bn, held a
ceremony and reception in Glasnevin Cemetery and Museum
at the monument and plot for Irish soldiers who died while on
service with the UN and for members of Óglaigh na hÉireann,
which is where the state funeral for those who died in the
Niemba Ambush took place.
After the ceremony the family of Tpr Anthony Brown (MMG)
presented his old bull's-wool uniform to IUNVA for a loan. It
will be put on display in IUNVA's HQ at Arbour Hill.
UN plot at Glasnevin Cemetery
Members of ONE and IUNVA
UN vets Ronnie Daly and Dan Garland with Tpr Brown's uniform
IUNVA veterans on parade. Photo by Pte Robbie McAney (retd)
www.military.ie the defence forces magazine
