Word: mountbatten
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...brilliantly sunny, almost windless day at the little fishing village of Mullaghmore overlooking Donegal Bay on Ireland's northwest coast. Lord Louis Mountbatten, 79, the distinguished war hero, diplomat and elder statesman of Britain's royal family, was summering as usual at his turreted stone castle, Classiebawn, in the green hills. Dressed in faded corduroys and rough pullover, Mountbatten was a beloved and folksy figure around Mullaghmore, where he had vacationed for 35 years. He could sometimes be seen standing knee-deep in the waters offshore, fishing for shrimp, and occasionally took local children for a ride...
...party proceeded along the coast, still only a stone's throw from shore, for a few hundred yards, then stopped to inspect Lord Mountbatten's lobster pots...
Suddenly, an enormous explosion shattered the summer stillness of the harbor. The blast blew the boat "to smithereens," in the words of one eyewitness, and hurled all seven occupants into the water. Nearby fishermen raced to the rescue. Still breathing, Lord Mountbatten was pulled into one of the boats. He died, his legs nearly blown off, almost immediately. Two Belfast doctors on holiday hastily set up a makeshift aid station on the wharf, using old doors for stretchers, broken broomsticks for splints and ripped-up sheets to bind up wounds until ambulances arrived to rush the victims to Sligo General...
...hours after the explosion came the dreaded confirmation of what many already suspected. "The I.R.A. claim responsibility for the execution of Lord Louis Mountbatten," said a statement issued by the Provisional wing of the Irish Republican Army in Belfast. "This operation is one of the discriminate ways we can bring to the attention of the English people the continuing occupation of our country." The assassination of Lord Mountbatten, a patriarchal figure who seemed as much a part of the public life of Britain as Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, sent shock waves of anguish and indignation through Britain and Ireland...
Ironically, one question of British policy in which Mountbatten had never played a role was that of Northern Ireland. Yet his death, following hard on the tenth anniversary of Britain's dispatch of troops to the province, inevitably threw into grave relief the unremitting tragedy of Britain's most enduring dilemma. Simply because of his stature, Mountbatten had been considered an obvious if illogical target for the I.R.A. Mullaghmore is only twelve miles from Northern Ireland, near an area known as a refuge for Provos fleeing across the border. Thus local police kept watch on the castle...