Two Galway sisters paid an emotional tribute to their late uncle by visiting the memorial to himself and his fallen comrades on the green fields of France.
A short while before his death late last year, Galwayman Patrick Gillen was presented with the Legion D’Honeur by the French Ambassador while he was in hospital in Cork. Pat, as he was known, was being honoured for his efforts in the liberation of France on D-Day, June 1944.
So, on a visit to Normandy two of his nieces, Linda Gillen-Byrne and Ann Gillen – daughters of legendary Galway boxing coach and barber Michael “Chick” Gillen – laid a wreath in his memory, and that of his comrades, at the Commando Memorial in the village of Amfreville.
The No. 6 Commando, of which Galwayman Pat Gillen had been a member, occupied a farm in the village for forty days. After the war Pat moved to Cork city where he lived for the rest of his life.
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