Thomas McMahon

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the IRA volunteer. For the American soldier and Medal of Honor recipient, see Thomas J. McMahon. For the Roman Catholic Bishop of Brentwood, see Thomas McMahon (bishop).

Thomas McMahon (Irish: Tomás Mac Mathúna^[1]) (b. 1948 in Monaghan Town, County Monaghan, Republic of Ireland) was a volunteer in the South Armagh Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). McMahon was convicted of the murder of Lord Mountbatten of Burma and three others at Mullaghmore, County Sligo, Ireland.^[2]

McMahon was known to the security forces in both the UK and the Republic of Ireland. In 1972 and 1975, he was acquitted of IRA membership at two court cases in Dublin.^{[citation needed]}

McMahon was a member of an IRA unit which planted a bomb in Shadow V, a 27ft fishing boat belonging to Lord Mountbatten of Burma at Mullaghmore, County Sligo, near Donegal Bay. Lord Mountbatten was killed in the bomb blast along with three other people:

The Dowager Baroness Brabourne, Mountbatten's elder daughter's mother-in-law (aged 83).
The Hon. Nicholas Knatchbull, his elder daughter's fourth son (aged 14).
Paul Maxwell, from County Fermanagh who was working as a crew member (aged 15).

McMahon was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder in the Republic of Ireland on 23 November 1979, but was released in 1998 under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.^[3]^[4]

After his release, Toby Harnden in Bandit Country reports that McMahon was holding a tricolour in the first rank of the IRA colour party at a 1998 IRA meeting in Cullyhanna.^[5]