"Louis and Julie "
By Jude Collins
Louis Mountbatten and Julie Livingstone were just two of the hundreds of
casualties of the Troubles, but the media treatment of their deaths tells
us a lot about the ways in which power controls public response.
Irish Herald 02/09/09
I'm writing this on August 27, 2009, which means it's exactly thirty years since one of the most famous casualties of the Troubles occurred. On this date in 1979, Lord Louis Mountbatten was holidaying in Mullaghmore, Co Sligo . He was on board a fishing vessel when the IRA blew it up, killing him and a number of other people. He was 79 when he died.
Mountbatten was the son of Prince Louis of Battenberg and Princess Victoria of Hesse . In 1917 Louis of Battenberg changed his name to Louis Mountbatten (less German-sounding) so his son got the same new name. He was a cousin of Queen Elizabeth and was much admired by the Prince of Wales, who was deeply upset by his death.
Mountbatten had a long military career – if you look at photographs of him you'll see him weighed down with medals. Despite the decorations, his career as a British military leader was not always successful. He masterminded the infamous Dieppe raid during the Second World War, which resulted in the loss of 106 Allied aircraft and the killing, wounding or capturing of nearly 60% of the Allied forces. He was also the last British Viceroy in India , and many of the deaths that followed partition of that country are laid at Mountbatten's door. His personal life was notorious for the extra-marital activities enjoyed by him and his wife: the Countess Edwina had a long-standing affair with Jawaharlal Nehru, while Mountbatten was widely rumoured to have had liaisons with lovers of both sexes. Less than three months after Mountbatten's death Thomas McMahon was convicted for his part in the boat explosion and wasn't released until nineteen years later. Shortly after Mountbatten's death a memorial service was held for him in St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin . It was attended by many prominent personalities, including the president of Ireland , Patrick Hillery and the Taoiseach, Jack Lynch.
Less than two years later, another violent death occurred. Julie Livingstone was from Lenadoon in West Belfast , the youngest of a family of thirteen. On 12 May 1981 she was on her way to the local shops with her friend Norah. She was killed when a plastic bullet fired from a distance of five metres by a member of the British Army's Prince of Wales Regiment struck her on the head. Eye-witnesses say there was no rioting going on. She was 14 at the time. Her friend Norah said Julie had planned to go to America when she was 18 and that she had planned to go with her. No one was charged with Julie's killing and neither the president of Ireland nor the Taoiseach attended her funeral or any memorial service for her.
This past month the newspapers and the television have been crowded with recollections of the death of Mountbatten. Irish politicians such as former Minister for Foreign Affairs Michael O'Kennedy have spoken of the shame they felt at being Irish and the killing is commonly referred to as 'the murder of Lord Mountbatten'.
Maybe we'll have to wait another year and nine months before we'll see and hear a similar response to the death of Julie Livingstone. Perhaps in May 2011 British ministers will appear on television and say how they felt ashamed to be British when they heard of the murder of Julie Livingstone. Perhaps newspapers will carry the words of British and Irish politicians as they join in denouncing the actions of the British Army in Ireland and call for the removal of some 5,000 troops still stationed here.
Perhaps, but it's unlikely. Louis Mountbatten and Julie Livingstone were just two of the hundreds of casualties of the Troubles, but the media treatment of their deaths tells us a lot about the ways in which power controls public response.
Even though Mountbatten had a long career as a military man– in other words, he spent his life planning and executing the deaths of his fellow-human beings – and even though he was advanced in years when he died, the outcry against his killing has echoed down the decades and still goes on. A man linked to his killing was quickly tried and convicted, and released only under the operation of the Good Friday Agreement.
Julie Livingstone was a young girl who had hardly begun life, perhaps starting to dream about boys and an exciting adulthood. She was innocent of military matters, a convent schoolgirl in her own locality, on her way to the shops to do a message for her friend's mother. No one knows why a soldier from the Prince of Wales regiment decided to fire a plastic bullet at her from point-blank range and no one has ever been sent to jail for this crime.
There are unkind people who will tell you that Lord Louis Mountbatten received at the hands of the IRA no more than he had meted out to thousands of others throughout his life. There are untruthful people who will tell you that when it comes to the Troubles, there is no hierarchy of victims.
