Photo recalls soldiers' Congo sacrifice
The old photograph showing Corporal Michael Nolan (left) and Trooper Pat Mullins (right) with Trooper Jerry Llewellyn (centre) and two young Congolese boys
By Ralph Riegel
Monday August 08 2011
TWO young Irish UN peacekeepers pose happily with a colleague and two young Congolese boys.
The photograph shows the soldiers just weeks before they were killed in the Congo in 1961.
Trooper Pat Mullins (18) and Corporal Michael Nolan (22) died when their armoured car was ambushed in Katanga, a breakaway province of Congo on September 15, 1961.
Both fought bravely against overwhelming mercenary forces before being shot and killed.
Trooper Mullins's body was never recovered -- one of two Irish UN peacekeepers still 'missing in action'.
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