Lord Louis & Mullaghmore
About midday on the 27th August 1979, an explosion ripped across the bay at Mullaghmore, North Sligo. I didn't hear it, but I did hear that something terrible had happened up at near Classiebawn castle. My girlfriend at the time was the daughter of an ambulance driver, and we heard about the explosion from him.
Classiebawn was a gothic style castle and home to Mountbatten and his extended family usually for the duration of August every year. Most people called him Lord Louis locally and he was respected and liked. Classiebawn was less than a 10 minute drive from where i was staying in Grange, although perhaps 15 minutes for other drivers. I obviously couldn't arrive at the castle, having not been invited, but instead arrived at the nearby headland overlooking Mullaghmore harbour.
I later heard that this was where two Guardai officers allotted to watch over Mountbatten's fishing trip had witnessed the explosion at sea and called for backup emergency services.
It was obvious that Mullaghmore below was the real scene of tragedy, because ambulances and police were attending the situation below.
I drove down there but remained a respectable distance, because by now it was obvious what had happened and who the target had been. By then the wounded had been evacuated, but the carnage was obvious and the boats were collecting debris and flotsam from the wreck of Mountbatten's boat Shadow V.
I was only 17, but the Northern Irish troubles had affected me one way or another all my life. In school, it had led to anti-Irish bullying which only helped cement my Irish catholic identity. I had seen street battles in Derry when I was a kid and had once been hurled through the air by a bomb that destroyed the shop which I had just evacuated. However this incident at Mullaghmore affected me much more. it wasn't personal, but it was the first time that i had seen the troubles up North come down and invade County Sligo. I looked around at all the concerned locals, and then I looked back to the side of the nearby Benbulben. On that mountainside, the white lettering spelling out 'BRITS OUT' was clearly visible. Obviously, not everyone felt the same way about Lord Louis in these parts. That message was partly mean't for him.
