Thomas McMahon

Thomas McMahon (born 1948) is a former volunteer in the South Armagh Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), and was one of the IRA's most experienced bomb-makers. McMahon was convicted of the murder of Lord Louis Mountbatten and three others off the coast of Mullaghmore, County Sligo, in the west of Ireland. IRA activity McMahon planted a bomb in Shadow V, a fishing boat owned by Mountbatten at Mullaghmore, County Sligo, near Donegal Bay. Lord Mountbatten was killed on 27 August 1979 by the bomb blast along with three other people: Doreen Knatchbull (Mountbatten's elder daughter's mother-in-law); his grandson Nicholas Knatchbull; and a 15-year-old crewmember Paul Maxwell. McMahon was arrested by the Gardaí at a Garda checkpoint between Longford and Granard on suspicion of driving a stolen vehicle two hours before the bomb detonated. The IRA claimed responsibility for the bombing in a statement released immediately afterwards that said: "This operation is one of the discriminate ways we can bring to the attention of the English people the continuing occupation of our country." McMahon was identified as a possible suspect in the assassination almost immediately. Garda senior forensic scientist Dr. James O'Donovan examined the clothes McMahon had been wearing at the time of his arrest and was able to uncover flecks of paint from Mountbatten's boat and traces of nitroglycerine. Based on these findings, McMahon was charged with murder in the Republic of Ireland. He was convicted on 23 November 1979 and sentenced to life imprisonment. After serving almost 20 years in prison, McMahon was released in 1998 under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.