GAA PRESIDENT OPENS CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE ON SLIGO VISIT
“HE was a man like no other. We were treated like members of his family.”
Lord Louis Mountbatten’s memory still lives on in the hearts and minds of the former staff of Classie Bawn Castle in Mullaghmore who held a reunion in the Gate Lodge last Friday.
Prince Philip’s uncle and last Viceroy of India was fondly remembered as “a fine man” by his housekeeper Philomena Barry, her two sons John and Pat and former Gate Lodge residents Annie Duffy and her son and daughter- in- law Liam and Yvonne Carey.
Annie came to work for the Mountbattens in 1950 and left in 1974, some five years before he was killed by the IRA along with his grandson Nicholas ( 14), Lady Brabourne ( 83) and Paul Maxwell ( 15).
“We had great fun here. There was a lot of people around then,” recalls Annie. Her only son Liam recalled one of his earliest childhood memories of Lord Mountbatten coming down the avenue from Classie Bawn to go out in the boat.
“My father always warned me ‘ do not go out in the car’ but I was mad to get out in the boat. My father would go out the front door to open the gates for him and I’d be out the back door, round the other side of the car and he’d see my little head pop up and say ‘ come on, get in’ and my father wouldn’t even realise I was in the car. He’d drive off and I’d be waving to my father out the back window and he’d be putting up his fist,” smiled Liam.
“He was very kind to me throughout my life. I joined the navy as a cadet in ‘ 69. My summer job was looking after his boat while I was at college. I was trained by the Royal Navy in Dartmouth, Devon. He was Admiral of the Navy at the time and invited me up to his place in Broadlands which caused a ripple in the college at the time!” he said.
“That’s the kind of person he was. He never forgot you, he always tried to do his best for you. He was a man who commanded respect but if he could help along the way he would,” said Liam.
Brothers John and Pat Barry spent their childhood going up to visit the Mountbatten family when their mother Philomena worked as housekeeper in Classie Bawn.
“We played with Timothy and Nicholas Knatchbull, I used to attend parties in the Castle. The family were so kind to all the staff and indeed the people of Mullaghmore,” said John.
“Today it’s very emotional for us all coming to the Gate House. We’ll never see the like again and I’m glad that I did experience that in my childhood, that chance to get to know the Mountbatten family so well. They made us all feel part of their family,” he said.
Pat Barry worked as a waiter in the Castle 19651975 when Lord Mountbatten invited him over to his home in Broadlands in England where he worked for him for another three years.
“Lord Mountbatten loved the place. He was always interested in people, wherever he went. He came every August. That was when the Mountbatten family came to Mullaghmore. They found the perfect peace here.
“He never retired because he was involved in more than 200 organisations in England and when he came here it was a complete relaxation. He could relax. When he first came here, he and his wife Edwina Mountbatten in 1946, he fell in love with the place immediately.
“They set about doing renovations and they came year after year after that. After the death of his wife Edwina in 1960 he and his family continued to come and they never missed out.
“They were so easy to get on with. When you worked there, you were made part of the family,” said Pat. “He was just down to earth. Nobody was told to do anything, you were made part of the family. When they were no longer here, coming to Mullaghmore we missed them terribly.
He and the staff admit they were devastated when he was killed in 1979. “We have never forgotten the family, ever. He was held in high regard by everyone in the locality,” said Pat.
“You never forgot him once you met him. He was a once- off, he could never be replaced.”