Irish Defence Forces in the Congo July 1960 - June 1964

July 27th 1960 marked a watershed when the first element of 32 Inf Bn, the first complete unit from the Defence Forces to serve overseas, took off from Dublin bound for the Congo. After gaining independence from Belgium the previous month the Congo descended into something approaching anarchy. Prime Minister Patrice Lamumba successfully appealed to the UN for intervention and on July 13th Ireland was one of the countries requested to provide troops to the proposed ONUC mission. The Irish government passed t