Congo soldier Luke Kelly deserves to be recalled in Dunleer
Suntown man was killed in car accident
I WONDER is there a fitting memorial in the Dunleer area to a man who died while on the service of the state in the Congo in 1961.
Corporal Luke Malachy Kelly (39) from Suntown, Dunleer (pictured), was killed on August 30 of that year when he was involved in a motor accident while based at ONUC headquarters at Leopardville.
The car he was in went off the road and crashed into a canal.
He had 21 years service in the military.
He lived at the Curragh Camp with wife Aileen and four children, At the time his youngest, Bernadette, was just 18 months old. Patrick was 19, Luke (13) and Helen (11).
He was buried in the army’s Congo plot in Glasnevin with full military honours. His body was flown home on an Italian airways plane and the army band and a firing party from the Eastern Command escorted the coffin from the airport to the church of the Sacred Heart at Arbour Hill.
He was the second son of Mr and Mrs Michael Kelly and had been in the Congo for only 10 weeks and he was due home that November.
A very keen Gaelic supporter, Luke was very popular with his comrades in the army. He enlisted in 1940.
Two days prior to the news of the accident, his sister, Mrs. Tom Sheridan, Suntown, had a letter from him. Other sisters and brothers were Mrs. J. Duffy, Williamstown, Castlebellingham ; Miss E. Kelly, Suntown ; Messrs. Michael (Dysart, Dunleer), Patrick (Gallagh, do.), and Sean (Suntown).
Cpl. Kelly belonged to the Depot Military Police Corps, Curragh Training Camp and was serving on the staff of Gen. McKeown, the Irish Commander-in- Chief of the U.N. Forces.
Before joining the army, he worked for a period with Mr. Vincent Kelly, Morganstown House, Dunleer.