The EPIIC 2018 Film Series on “Is the Liberal World Order Ending?” presents Siege of Jadotville

In September 1961, Carey was a 24-year-old lieutenant, Gorman a wide-eyed 17-year-old private, part of an Irish contingent of United Nations peacekeepers deployed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to stop the country descending into chaos. Even at a distance of 55 years, their voices crack with emotion as they recall how their mission turned into a battle for survival in Ireland’s first ever international military deployment.

In 1961, the U.N. forces found themselves party to a civil war between the DRC’s central government and Katanga, which was also supported by Rhodesia and South Africa.

What unfolded over five days in Jadotville is a little-known but astonishing story of heroism and against-all-odds soldiering, a feat of indefatigable courage that is now the subject of a major new movie.

The Siege of Jadotville, with Fifty Shades of Grey star Jamie Dornan in the lead role, tells the true story of how these 157 Irishmen, led by a tactically astute commander, routed a force of 3,000 attackers, killing 300 of them — while suffering no fatalities.