Lord Louis Mountbatten was a Statesman, Naval Officer and the 1st Earl of Burma. He was the uncle of Prince Phillip of Greece and Denmark. Louis was a great influence on the young Phillip so he ended up taking Mountbatten’s surname. When Phillip married the then Princess Elizabeth in 1947, Louis ended up becoming an honorary member of the royal family.
Meanwhile, a group of radical Irish Republican Catholics began believing that Ireland was meant to be united as one, instead of split between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. This group would call themselves the IRA or the (Provisional) Irish Republican Army
One of their members was Thomas McMahon. Not much is known about McMahon, other than he was one of the most skilled bomb makers in the IRA.
On the night of August 26th, 1979 in Mullaghmore Harbour in the Republic of Ireland, McMahon is reported to have slipped onto a boat, the Shadow V, and left undetected.
The next morning, Mountbatten went out fishing on the Shadow V with his grandsons, Nicholas and Timothy Knatchbull, his daughter and son-in-law, Patricia and John Knatchbull, his mother-in-law, Doreen Knatchbull, and a crew boy named Paul Maxwell. A few hours after they set sail, they were off shore, when all of a sudden…
A large explosion erupted from the boat. The explosion was allegedly so powerful that Mountbatten’s legs were nearly torn clean off. He was found in the water alive and pulled to shore, but succumbed to his injuries before he reached the shoreline. Paul and Nicholas were also killed in the explosion. All other occupants of the boat were seriously injured, with Doreen dying in hospital from her wounds soon afterwards.
The IRA claimed responsibility for the attack. McMahon had gone onto the boat to plant a bomb made of gelignite. He was arrested for suspicion of driving a stolen vehicle. Traces of the paint from Shadow V and nitroglycerine were found on his clothes, connecting him to the attacks, so he was sentenced to life in prison. The IRA claimed that the attack was “a discriminate act to bring to the attention of the English people the continuing occupation of our country”. This day was the deadliest attack in IRA history, as that same day a British Military convoy was attacked by the IRA in a guerilla ambush, killing 18 men. Margaret Thatcher, the British Prime Minister at the time, ramped up SAS involvement in the Troubles, ordering them to kill any known IRA volunteers. She was also the victim of a bombing at a hotel she was staying at in Brighton, but was left only lightly injured. McMahon was eventually paroled in 1998, in accordance with the Good Friday Agreement
In the aftermath of the bombing, many head of states, including Jimmy Carter, US President, and Pope John Paul II sent their condolences to the royal family, the US State Department saying that “Americans will especially recall his great contribution to our common cause in World War II as well as his many services to this country and to the world since then.” Many others regard Mountbatten as a war hero for his service in World War 2, defending against the axis powers. A 3 day period of mourning was observed in Burma. His state funeral was held on September 5th, 1979
