During the Summer of 1979, India
Hicks was holidaying in County
Sligo, Ireland, with her family
and grandfather, Lord Louis
Mountbatten, who was an uncle
of Prince Philip and a distant
cousin of the Queen. He was also
Prince Charles’ close mentor.
It was something that Hicks,
then aged 11, had done every year.
But on 27 August, the family
holiday ended in tragedy.
Lord Mountbatten, 79, and
several other family members were
out on his fishing boat, Shadow V,
when an IRA bomb went off. The
blast killed four people,
including Mountbatten
and his 14-year-old
grandson Nicholas,
Hicks’ closest cousin.TRAUMATIC
‘For some reason
that day I didn’t join
them,’ recalls Hicks.
‘I stayed behind,
although I heard the
bomb go off. For several
years afterwards, every time a door
or window slammed, I’d jump.
‘It was horrific for the entire
family. But I was at an age where
at least I was able to express myself.
I was able to get the emotion and
the anger out of me.’
This documentary marking
the 40th anniversary of the deaths
recounts the events of that fateful
day and hears from Hicks as well
as Mary Hornsey, whose 15-year-
old son Paul Maxwell, a localemployed as a
crew member, was
also killed aboard
Shadow V. Another
passenger, Baroness
Brabourne, 83, died the
day after the attack.
The detonation of the bomb,
which had been planted on the
boat the day before, sent ripples
through the British establishment
and set the Royal Family and the
IRA on a collision course.
But, as the documentary reveals,
it wasn’t the first attempt on
Mountbatten’s life. The IRA had
planned another assassination
attempt just four years earlier,
but bad weather had preventeda sniper from being able to target
the royal on his boat.HIGHEST HONOURS
Mountbatten’s funeral service
took place at Westminster Abbey,
reflecting his distinguished military
career during World War Two and
his later service as the first governor-
general of India and the Royal Navy’s
First Sea Lord. He’ll be portrayed
by Charles Dance from the third
season of the Netflix drama The
Crown, with the tragedy scheduled
to be depicted in its fourth.
IRA member Thomas McMahon
was tried for the assassinations and
convicted on 23 November 1979.
After flecks of paint from the boatlinked him to the crime, McMahon
was handed a life sentence, but was
released in 1998 under the terms of
the Good Friday Agreement.
Today, Hicks still has fond
memories of her grandfather, who
is buried at Romsey Abbey, near his
former home in Hampshire.
‘My grandfather was very much
the centre of our family. He was an
extraordinary character – he’d walk
into the room and you’d notice him
at once,’ says Hicks.
‘Everybody coped very differently
and some didn’t cope well – and, of
course, we’re seeing the side-effects
of that even to this day. The damage
done was so much deeper than any
of us could ever have imagined.’W
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NEW DOCUMENTARY
The Day
Mountbatten Died
Monday, BBC2 HD, 9pm (NI, BBC1)
Shetland on BBC
Douglas Henshall stars as DI Jimmy
Perez in the crime drama set in the stunning
Shetland Islands. The latest series saw Perez
and his partner DS Alison ‘Tosh’ McIntosh
(Alison O’Donnell) on the trail of a people-
trafficking ring that brought multiple deaths
to Shetland’s beaches and farmland.Doctor Who and
Broadchurch star
David Tennant will
play GP Tom Kendrick in the upcoming four-part
murder mystery, set in the fictional Scottish town of
Kirkdarroch. When Tom’s wife Kate (Anna Madeley)
and three children are found murdered in their
remote woodland home, local secrets are laid bare
in the search to unravel the truth about their deaths.Deadwater Fell on C
Yo u like d ... Now try this...Now try this...
Murder
of a
India Hicks had
stayed ashoreThe Shadow V was
reduced to driftwoodMountbatten
in 1955This week on TV
A documentary
marks 40 years since
the IRA assassinated
Lord Mountbatten