Missing in Action (23 page)

‘I think that medal meant an awful lot to my mother,’ Mary Kent said. ‘It was as if they were saying that, despite all the years, what Pat did and the courage he showed had not been forgotten. It was something. We wanted Pat’s body to be found and brought home. But at least this was something.’

The award meant that Pat’s service record now included three medals – the Military Star, the Congo Medal, which was awarded to all Irish personnel who served in the UN mission, and the UN Peace Medal which, following the 1988 award of the Nobel Peace Prize to the United Nations, was awarded to all personnel who had worn the blue beret. The medals and ribbons were framed and now enjoy a place of honour on the wall of the Boher house where Pat Mullins grew up.

But medals couldn’t hide the reality that Pat’s body was still missing and unaccounted for in the Congo. Yet there appeared little the government could – or would – do about the matter. The government and Defence Forces faced a political and logistical headache in terms of getting anything done in Africa. Under President Mobutu, the era of UN involvement in the Congo was now ignored, as were all the issues arising from it. For Mobutu, the past held painful and potentially damaging truths – particularly about his involvement in the death of Patrice Lumumba who had emerged as one of the martyrs of African independence. Lumumba’s murder was a political minefield the US, the UN and particularly the Belgians were deeply conscious of.

As the Congo slid deeper into the mire of corruption, stagnation and anarchy, powerful interests were determined that stability would be preserved at all costs for the vast mining wealth of Katanga. Humanitarian as a search for the missing Irish UN peacekeeper might seem, if it threatened to embarrass the Congolese or the Katangans, it was something the corporations could do without.

Back in Ireland, the Defence Forces’ position was that the file on Tpr Mullins remained open and active. But, in truth, little of consequence was done. No investigative team was ever sent to Katanga after 1964 to search for clues to his whereabouts, despite the fact that the fighting was long since over in the southern province. What was most agonising about this delay was the fact that age, disease and emigration had inexorably whittled down the number of people potentially in a position to help with information about Tpr Mullins.

By 2000, a ten-year-old Katangan child who might have witnessed the Irish soldier’s fate or burial back in 1961 was now forty-nine years old. Tragically, in a country wracked by disease, poverty, malnutrition, poor medical services and regular armed revolts, very few people live into their fifties. According to World Bank figures, the average life expectancy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2004 was just 53.7 years. In contrast, the average life expectancy in Ireland in 2004 was 79.4 years.

It wasn’t until the 1990s that momentum finally began to build to get something tangible done for the Mullins family. The key factor was that Pat’s former comrades and friends began to retire – and, one by one, they suddenly had the time to devote to reviving and reinvigorating a search campaign. Crucially, a lot of his friends were no longer in the army and no longer worried about the potential implications of being seen to ‘rock the boat’ over the handling of the Pat Mullins case.

Foremost amongst those who helped kick-start the campaign was Art Magennis, who had retired with the rank of commandant. Art had never forgotten the information he had received from Bill Williams in Elisabethville or the scene at the mission cemetery where the remains of Mick Nolan were finally recovered. He felt honour-bound to do his best to reinvigorate the campaign to highlight Pat Mullins’ case and, if possible, persuade the government to send a search team out to Elisabethville – now called Lubumbashi.

Similarly, John O’Mahony had never forgotten his best friend. He kept all his photos of Pat Mullins and their time together, both in Fitzgerald Camp and the Congo. Some of the only photos now in existence of Pat Mullins in the last weeks of his life survive thanks to John. Over time, Art and John began to correspond over precisely what to do. Other former Congo colleagues gradually joined them and they decided that, to begin with, they would work just to highlight Pat Mullins’ status and the courage he showed in the Congo.

A major breakthrough came on 10 February 1990 when a new military representative organisation was set up following a meeting in Dublin of ex-soldiers. The Irish United Nations Veterans Association (IUNVA) was set up with the primary role of providing advice and counselling to members and their families who have been affected by their overseas service with the UN. The Association, which is endorsed by the Minister for Defence, is financed by membership fees, voluntary contributions and fundraising. It also organises social, cultural and sporting events for its members. But, crucially, IUNVA took up the cudgel on behalf of the Mullins and Joyce families, particularly through their Fermoy-based Post 25. With their help, the Mullins case began to re-emerge in the headlines.

‘It was slow going at first. Initially, a lot of people simply hadn’t heard about Pat Mullins, even in north Cork and south Limerick where Pat was from. A lot of people didn’t even know the fact that the bodies of two Irish UN peacekeepers had not been brought home. A lot of younger people had heard about Ireland sending UN peacekeepers to Lebanon, but the only thing they seemed to know about the Congo was a vague recollection about the Niemba ambush and Balubas. I was shocked to meet a few Congo veterans who didn’t even know that an Irish soldier’s body hadn’t been brought back,’ John O’Mahony explained.

Efforts to generate publicity slowly began to bear fruit. Articles appeared in
The Avondhu
, a local newspaper based in Mitchelstown, and then in the
Irish Independent.
This coverage triggered a succession of other stories, and between 1998 and 2005 numerous stories were carried about Pat Mullins in
The Corkman
,
The Evening Echo
, the
Irish Examiner
and
The Irish Times
.

A further boost came from the renewed interest in what had actually happened during Ireland’s UN mission in the Congo. A total reappraisal of Ireland’s first major overseas UN mission was now underway, in part helped by books which aimed to set the record straight about events at Jadotville, one of the most disputed events in Irish military history.

Three excellent books were published on the Congo: two specifically about the siege at Jadotville, while another focused on recollections by politicians, journalists, peacekeepers and colonial administrators associated with the Congo and Katanga. The impact was in direct proportion to the general ignorance of the Irish public about the Congo. One Cork family only discovered in the wake of the coverage of the Jadotville books that their grandfather had not only served in Elisabethville at the time but, during Operation Morthor, had witnessed some of the most brutal fighting between Dogras and the Katangan gendarmes. The man had had nightmares for years afterwards about what he had seen but bluntly refused to discuss what had happened.

The debate about Jadotville inexorably spread from the book-shelves to national and provincial papers – and commentators began re-examining why Irish troops who had fought with such heroism at Jadotville, despite horrendous odds, came home only to find themselves treated like lepers by some elements of Irish society because they had surrendered. It is somewhat ironic that while most Irish people recognise the name Niemba, they had never heard of Jadotville, which represented one of the most defiant hours of the Defence Forces.

The national debate about Jadotville slowly became a key factor in helping generate further publicity for Pat Mullins’ case. Stories about the Congo were suddenly of interest to Irish news editors. But what astonished the family most was the fact that even reporters familiar with covering military and UN matters were completely ignorant of the fact that an Irish trooper was MIA in the Congo.

One report in particular generated enormous feedback for the Mullins family. RTÉ reporter Jenny O’Sullivan broadcast a special feature on the Pat Mullins case as part of the
Nationwide
TV series in 2008 and the response was incredible. The family suddenly found themselves receiving cards and letters from Congo veterans who were absolutely appalled that more wasn’t being done both to commemorate Pat’s name and to locate his resting place. Veterans offered to support campaigns and to attend any events in remembrance of Pat Mullins.

The Congo also figured in the memoirs of Conor Cruise O’Brien. O’Brien wrote his biography,
Memoir – My Life and Themes
in 1999 and it was updated in 2004. The Katangan mission and Operation Morthor were discussed in forensic detail over thirty-three pages. O’Brien went to great pains to defend the operation and its goals. But, interestingly, the former UN special representative never once mentioned the fact that three Irish soldiers died before and during Operation Morthor. Pat Mullins’ name does not feature in the book. One of O’Brien’s final comments, relating to events after 15 September 1961 and the escape of Moise Tshombe across the border to Rhodesia, was: ‘By this time, Morthor had definitely gone off the rails.’

Such omissions merely added fuel to the campaign for better recognition of Pat Mullins. IUNVA’s Post 25 began to stage annual memorials to the young soldier’s memory, including a special anniversary Mass in Kilbehenny in the same church in which Pat Mullins made his Holy Communion and Confirmation. Pat Mullins also had a room in the Curragh Camp named after him in commemoration. The tribute was organised by the Cavalry Corps and Lieutenant-General Seán McCann GOC, and it was a gesture that thrilled both the Mullins family and Art Magennis.

The dedicated room is a lecture hall in the Cavalry School Combat Support College. There are three lecture halls in the school, each dedicated to a cavalry soldier who will be remembered as long as the corps survives. One room is dedicated to Col J.V. Lawless, veteran of the War of Independence, founder of the Cavalry Corps and designer of the Ford armoured cars which played such an important role in the Congo. The second room is dedicated to Paddy Lynch, also a veteran of the War of Independence and a retired squadron sergeant, who for many years was foreman of the Cavalry Workshops and a close associate of Col Lawless. The third and final dedicated room has Pat Mullins’ name. The dedication citation aptly reads: ‘The bravest of the brave of whom it can be said – greater love hath no man than he who laid down his life for his friend.’

Then, on 10 October 2009, IUNVA and Fermoy historian, Paudie McGrath, unveiled a special memorial plaque outside the old Fitzgerald Camp barrack chapel, now called the Queen of Peace church, dedicated to all those who died on UN peacekeeping duty. The dedication ceremony was performed by Lt General Pat Nash who had recently been given overall command of the peacekeeping mission in Chad. A native of Limerick, Pat Nash had commenced his career at Fitzgerald Camp and was also a former commanding officer of 85th Infantry Battalion/UNIFIL in Lebanon between April and November 1999. For his achievements in Chad he was awarded France’s Legion d’Honneur medal by President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Pat Mullins’ name was inscribed twice on the memorial – once as a UN peacekeeper who died on duty and, secondly, as a former Fitzgerald Camp member who died while in service. In a further fitting tribute, the memorial programme featured a two page outline of the eighteen-year-old’s story and the circumstances of his disappearance in the Congo.

Pat Mullins was eventually awarded three medals for his UN service in the Congo in 1961. Pictured left to right are the Military Star, the UN Peace Medal and the Congo Service Medal. (Photo: Paudie McGrath)

The late Catherine Mullins (photo Mullins family)