Missing in Action: The 50 Year Search for Ireland's Lost Soldier - Softcover

Ralph Riegal; John O'Mahony

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1856356949 ISBN 13: 9781856356947

Publisher: The Mercier Press Ltd, 2010

Synopsis

On 15 September 1961, Trooper Patrick Mullins (18) was posted missing after a bloody ambush of an Irish UN convoy in a suburb of Elizabethville in the Katanga province of the Congo. Injured, out-gunned and out-numbered, Tpr Mullins fought with astonishing courage as he desperately tried to save his dying comrade and reach friendly lines. But after a fierce gun-fight from his crippled armoured car, Patrick Mullins was killed and his body taken as spoils of war by the tribal militia supporting the Katangan rebels. When Ireland finally ended its UN mission in the Congo and the last battalion shipped home, Tpr Mullins' body remained buried in an unknown Congolese grave. With the 50th anniversary of his death fast approaching, the Mullins family remain caught in the terrible nightmare of maintaining an empty grave for him at the foothills of the Galtee Mountains. This fascinating book describes Tpr Mullins' story, the struggle to find his body and the difficulties in bringing it home.

About this title

About the Author

Ralph Riegel is the author of Hidden Soldier and Afraid of the Dark: The Tragic Story of Robert Houlihan. He is the southern correspondent of the Irish Independent and the Evening Herald. John O'Mahony is from Waterford and enlisted in the army in 1960 and served in the Congo with Patrick Mullins in the Armoured Car Group of the 35th battalion in 1961.

Edition details

• Publisher: The Mercier Press Ltd
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1856356949
• ISBN 13: 9781856356947
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256