Outline Plan:
I have chosen the siege at Jadotville which took place in the Congo in September 1961 as the subject of this study. I have chosen this subject because I am an African living in Ireland and this event involved Irish soldiers on peacekeeping duty in Africa.
The aim of this study is to describe the events that took place in Jadotville and also the subsequent treatment by the Irish authorities of these brave men. I intend to do this by giving a detailed description of the events that took place during the siege and briefly describing the negative reaction of the Irish authorities in the aftermath and their later recognition of the bravery of the men involved.
I have used two books as the source of information for this study; Source A: Heroes of Jadotville – The soldiers’ story by Rose Doyle with Leo Quinlan, published in 2006, and Source B: Siege at Jadotville – The Irish Army’s forgotten battle by Declan Power, published in 2005. Evaluation of the sources:
Both these books deal specifically with the events at Jadotville, the events leading up to it and the aftermath. Both books contain a great deal of background information about the political manoeuvring involved in the Congo conflict as well as descriptions of the action and aftermath of the siege. Siege at Jadotville relies heavily on third party testimony and UN documents along with some recollections and letters home from the men involved in the siege. The author of Heroes of Jadotville had far more extensive access to eye witness accounts from the Irish soldiers involved, especially their Commander, as well as letters sent home and actual transcripts of radio messages both from and to the troops in Jadotville. As a result of that I think that Heroes of Jadotville represents a more in depth study of the siege itself than Siege at Jadotville. Both books could be seen as being biased on the side