Nearly a half-century after surviving the single deadliest event in Defence Forces history, Joseph Fitzpatrick has been officially recognised for his service on a 1960 UN peacekeeping mission in Congo.
Minister for Defence Willie O'Dea presented Mr Fitzpatrick with a custom-made medallion and plaque during a special presentation at Cathal Brugha Barracks, Dublin, yesterday.
The presentation was held during Mr O'Dea's review of military personnel who will soon be travelling to Lebanon as a part of a UN peacekeeping mission.
Mr O'Dea praised the efforts of Mr Fitzpatrick, who was aged 18 when he and 10 other Irish soldiers on peacekeeping duty in the newly-independent African nation were ambushed by Baluba tribesmen in the town of Niemba.
"Mr Fitzpatrick showed great courage and tenacity through quite an ordeal," Mr O'Dea said. "We thought this was an appropriate way to recognise him."
It was recognition that Mr Fitzpatrick had spent years fighting for with protests, letters and political appeals.
Discrepancy over the details of the November 8th, 1960 ambush in which guns, axes, clubs and poisoned arrows were used, contributed to the delay of any official recognition for Mr Fitzpatrick and the massacre's only other survivor, Thomas Kenny.
According to the initial Army account, nine of the Irish soldiers and up to 26 members of the Baluba tribe were killed in the fighting. One soldier, trooper Anthony Browne (19), was posthumously awarded the first-ever An Bonn Míleata Calmachta (Military Medal for Gallantry), the Army's highest honour. In the report, Browne was recognised for sacrificing his life for Mr Kenny.
In the decades following the incident, however, the circumstances surrounding Mr Browne's death were called into question and in 2006 the official report was altered and calls for recognition of the massacre's two survivors were renewed and finally realised this year.
Mr Kenny has been offered a similar commendation but has not yet accepted it. He was absent from yesterday's ceremony because of an illness.
But for Mr Fitzpatrick, accepting the recognition was an important step towards some kind of closure. "The Army, the big brass, have apologised," he said.
"The whole thing of it is that people who have called you a coward for 47 years can't call you a coward any more. And if they did, you've got a medal around your neck to prove them wrong."