{"id":5050,"date":"2018-02-25T21:31:18","date_gmt":"2018-02-25T21:31:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/inspiringyou.ie\/home\/?p=5050"},"modified":"2018-02-25T21:37:26","modified_gmt":"2018-02-25T21:37:26","slug":"col-pat-quinlan-celebrated-with-monument","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inspiringyou.ie\/home\/col-pat-quinlan-celebrated-with-monument\/","title":{"rendered":"Col. Pat Quinlan celebrated with monument"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nWaterville, Kerry, Ireland<\/a>\u00a0celebrate their heroic son Col. Pat Quinlan with monument<\/p>\n

It was an historic day in Waterville yesterday with former\u00a0Siege at Jadotville<\/a>veterans, members of the Quinlan family and hundreds of well wishers turning out for unveiling of the monument commissioned by\u00a0Kerry County Council<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Former Taoiseach\u00a0Enda Kenny<\/a>\u00a0and political representatives\u00a0Noel Grealish<\/a>,\u00a0Catherine Connolly TD<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Senator Gerard Craughwell<\/a>\u00a0turned up for this historic occasion.<\/p>\n

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The political representation was in response to a year long campaign by students of Malahide Community School and\u00a0Galway Community College<\/a>where the students started the\u00a0#<\/span>MedalsforJadotville<\/span><\/span><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0#<\/span>Medal4Quinlan<\/span><\/span><\/a>campaigns. The voice of the children helped add an extra dimension to the 56 years of campaigning by veterans and their families.<\/p>\n

The work of the students and their teachers Kevin Manning, Malahide CS and Philip Cribbin from Galway Community College, was gratefully acknowledged by Leo Quinlan in a speech to the assembled gathering and media prior to the unveiling.<\/p>\n

The former Taoiseach Enda Kenny praised\u00a0Noel Grealish<\/a>\u00a0for requesting medals for the officers nominated by Col. Quinlan as well as requesting by Col. Quinlan be awarded the Medal of Military Gallantry with Honours.\u00a0Noel Grealish<\/a>\u00a0worked with the Leaving Cert History students in\u00a0Galway Community College<\/a>\u00a0in drafting a Leader’s question on the medal issue and the Jadotville veterans.<\/p>\n

A medal to accompany the unit citation will be awarded at Custume Barracks in Athlone on December the 2nd. We hope that the government will use this opportunity to finally award Col. Pat Quinlan with the MMG with Honours. We can but hope that this grave wrong will finally be put right on December the 2nd and Pat’s heroism be formally recognised from a military perspective.<\/p>\n

Thanks to all of you who have supported\u00a0Inspiringyouirl<\/a>\u00a0during our #Medal4Quinlan campaign.<\/p>\n

We have attached some photos from the event yesterday one of which features the writer of\u00a0Siege at Jadotville<\/a>, Declan Power, who was very supportive of our campaign and will continue to help #Medal4Quinlan. It was also a great honour for Kevin Manning and Philip Cribbin to meet\u00a0Holger C. L\u00f6nze – Sculptor<\/a>\u00a0who designed the evocative monument to Col. Quinlan.<\/p>\n

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