Only one man has ever served time for Mountbatten atrocity
ONLY one person has ever been convicted for the atrocity in which Lord Louis Mountbatten was killed.
In November 1979, Thomas McMahon, then aged 31, was sentenced to life imprisonment for the assassination of the British earl, his grandson Nicholas Knatchbull, 14, a boat boy named Paul Maxwell, 15, and Lady Doreen Brabourne, 83.
Another defendant, 24-year-old Francis McGirl, was found not guilty of participating in the murders, but the Special Criminal Court ordered him to stand trial on charges of being an IRA member.
Presiding Judge Liam Hamilton refused to allow McMahon, a longtime Provisional IRA explosives specialist, to appeal the life sentence.
Both men had denied they killed the 79-year-old second cousin of the late Queen Elizabeth II, who died when a bomb on his boat in Mullaghmore, Co. Sligo, exploded on 27 August, 1979.
McMahon, originally from south Armagh, was one of the most active IRA figures in the border area during the 1970s. He has never apologised for the attack and now lives with his wife in a bungalow at Lisanisk, near Carrickmacross in Co. Monaghan.
With two grown-up sons, he is believed to work as a carpenter from his home, decorated with landscapes painted during his 18 years in jail.
McMahon was not at home when the MoS called this week. McGirl, meanwhile, died in 1995 after reportedly falling from a tractor while drunk. However a former army security expert claimed in 2019 that an SAS hit squad staged McGirl’s death as part of a secret operation to avenge Mountbatten’s murder. Graham Yuill told this newspaper that Mountbatten’s death, along with an attack on paratroopers, resulted in SAS missions targeting the Provos who were responsible. A 1979 report in the Washington Post said gardaí were keeping the Mountbatten file open in the belief up to seven other men were involved.
A source told the newspaper: ‘We’re confident more arrests will be made in this case soon.’