News Digest

Prince Charles mourns Mountbatten with hopes for ‘legacy of peace’

Prince Charles has spoken of the loss of his great uncle Lord Mountbatten at the hands of the IRA as he described current UK relations with the Irish Republic as a “blessed era of friendship”. The Prince of Wales was speaking in County Sligo, close to the spot in Ireland where the peer was blown up by a bomb on his boat near his holiday home. In a speech that followed up his historic handshake with ex-IRA political leader Gerry Adams on Tuesday, he said his relative’s death had helped him understand the 'troubles’. He said he hoped visiting the spot could continue the “healing process” that had been under way since the IRA ceasefire in 1994.

I am only too deeply aware of the long history of suffering which Ireland has endured… In August 1979, my much-loved great uncle, Lord Mountbatten, was killed. I could not imagine how we would come to terms with the anguish of such a deep loss since, for me, Lord Mountbatten represented the grandfather I never had.

Prince Charles

He later attended a multi-Christian religion service at St Columba’s Church at Drumcliffe, close to the spot where his great-uncle died, which he said he was doing in the hope that the next generation would continue with the peace process. He was due to go on to Mullaghmore where his great uncle was killed. The day Lord Mountbatten died was a particularly violent one with 16 members of the Parachute Regiment and two other soldiers also killed in the Warrenpoint Ambush in Northern Ireland, close to the border with the Republic.

So it seemed as if the foundations of all that we held dear in life had been torn apart irreparably. Through this dreadful experience, though, I now understand in a profound way the agonies borne by so many others in these islands, of whatever faith, denomination or political tradition.

Prince Charles