'God, my men were fine...Ireland never reared better sons. They would have died to a man if I had decided to continue. They never wavered ... No man ever got the loyalty I did from those boys. When things were darkest they were always smiling.' Comdt. P. Quinlan. October 1961.

'We knew nothing about the Congo and the army knew less.'

Noel Carey, the company’s youngest officer.

In 1961, during the United Nations intervention in the Katangan conflict in the Congo, central Africa, a company of Irish peacekeeping troops was forced to surrender to soldiers loyal to Katanga’s prime minister, Moise Tshombe. They were isolated, without water, supplies or support when they were attacked and forced to defend themselves in a brutal and bloody five- day battle. Shamefully neglected by their superiors, they were portrayed as cowards upon their return home. In this new and updated edition of Heroes of Jadotville: The Soldiers’ Story, Rose Doyle uses interviews, reports, journals and letters to bring answers and clarity to an episode long ignored. She blows the lid on the real story of what happened in Africa, exposing how Irish peacekeeping soldiers became pawns in an international struggle for control of Katanga and its mineral wealth. Doyle seeks to grant these soldiers the recognition their bravery deserves. This is their story.