Prince Charles in Ireland: Prince of Wales visits village where Lord Mountbatten was murdered by IRA bomb

 
Service: Charles and Camilla talk to Reverend Arfon Williams at St Columba's Church (Picture: Brian Lawless/AFP)
AFP/ Brian Lawless
Gareth Vipers2 June 2015

The Prince of Wales has attended a service of reconciliation near the village where his great-uncle Lord Mountbatten was murdered by an IRA bomb.

Charles was joined the parents of schoolboy Paul Maxwell who died alongside Lord Mountbatten when the bomb exploded on a boat near the village of Mullaghmore in County Sligo, Ireland, in 1979.

Today his parents John and Mary sat close to the Prince and Duchess of Cornwall during the reflective event in nearby Drumcliffe.

It was held at St Columba's Church before the Royal couple made a short trip to the scene of the atrocity at the picturesque Mullaghmore harbour.

As well as Lord Mountbatten and 15-year-old schoolboy Paul, the IRA bomb killed Lady Doreen Brabourne, 83, the mother-in-law of Mountbatten's daughter, and Nicholas Knatchbull, the earl's 14-year-old grandson.

Mr Maxwell said he had been nervous about attending the service but ultimately found it uplifting.

"I thought it was brilliant," he said afterwards.

"It was very moving and very appropriate."

During the 40 minute mix of prayer, music and religious readings, the prince sat beside former Irish president Mary McAleese. Mrs McAleese, who was crucial in facilitating the Queen's historic visit to the Republic of Ireland in 2011, gave one of the readings.

Afterwards, she said the prince's latest visit to Ireland had helped further develop the increasingly positive relationship enjoyed between her nation and the UK.

"Not just by being here but by the words he has spoken and the relationships he had managed to create," she added.

The former president described the prince's trip to Mullaghmore as a "pilgrimage of the heart".

"We all know what the past was like, it was not a pretty landscape at all, and particularly that day at Mullaghmore was horrendous. I think today something much more gracious and beautiful is let loose into the Irish air."

During the service, there were prayers for those who died at Mullaghmore and all the other victims of the Troubles.

Additional reporting by the Press Association

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