Death of Corporal Mick Fallon
Sean Norton
Interviewed for MAOHP - 30/01/2017
Reference Code: IE_MA_MAC_006_MAOHP_003_H
Location(s): Congo
Length: 0.42
Colonel Seán Norton enlisted in the Irish Army in January 1955 at the age of nineteen. Sixty-two years later, he sat down at Cathal Brugha Barracks to offer his memories to the MAOHP. In December 1961, Colonel Norton was one of three Platoon Commanders at the Battle of the Tunnel in which two Irish soldiers were killed. Norton was awarded a Distinguished Service Medal for his role in the battle. In this piece of audio, Colonel Norton recalls the injury and death of Corporal Mick Fallon (08 December 1961), which occurred within feet of Seán. He remembers praying with a group of soldiers and the chaplain beside Fallon, when he died. He notes poignantly that Fallon died immediately after the men finished the Rosary. He notes that Mick Fallon's brother, JD was also in the Congo at the time his brother was killed.