Prince to visit site of beloved uncle’s IRA death
A RESCUER who pulled bodies from the water following Lord Mountbatten’s assassination has maintained the murder site should be known for the joy it brought the Royals, not just the horror.
On the eve of the Prince of Wales’s emotionally charged visit to Mullaghmore, Co Sligo in the Irish Republic, where the 1979 IRA bombing began one of the bloodiest days of the Troubles, locals spoke of time for healing.
The massacre claimed four lives – Lord Mountbatten, Lady Doreen Brabourne, the 83-yearold mother-in-law of the earl’s daughter, his 14-year-old grandson Nicholas Knatchbull and Paul Maxwell, also 14, from Enniskillen, who was in the village for the summer and worked on the Royal’s boat.
The killing of the Queen’s 79-year-old cousin and Prince Charles’s great-uncle and godfather brought to a sudden end a 30-year connection with the west of Ireland. A few hours after the remote control bomb, as shockwaves reverberated worldwide, the IRA struck again detonating two 800lb bombs at Narrow Water in Co Down, killing 18 soldiers.
But Lord Mountbatten’s assassination and the indiscriminate nature of the murders made Mullaghmore synonymous with republican terror. Peter McHugh, a lifelong resident of the seaside village, was in his early 20s when he witnessed the aftermath of the bombing and helped pull bodies from the sea.
“Mountbatten spent probably 30 years of happy times with himself and his family there and I think it should be remembered for that aspect as well as the ending of his life,” the businessman said.
The historic return of the Royal family to Mullaghmore – Prince Charles will travel with the Duchess of Cornwall – will include a service in St Columba’s Church in nearby Drumcliffe, the burial spot of poet WB Yeats. The fourday visit to the Republic and Northern Ireland will begin with a visit to the National University of Ireland in Galway. But the most poignant moment will be the arrival at Mullaghmore, where Lord Mountbatten’s former summer residence Classiebawn Castle perches near the assassination spot.