The Irish journalist credited with bringing state broadcasting to Ireland \u2013\u00a0who chaired the first RT\u00c9 board after a spell working in Britain \u2013 spent three weeks at Louis Mountbatten\u2019s Sligo home while the royal was being monitored by British intelligence.<\/p>\n
Eamonn Andrews, who would receive an honorary Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 1970, stayed in Mountbatten\u2019s Classiebawn Castle in July 1978.<\/p>\n
Andrews hosted the first broadcast of RT\u00c9 television in 1961 and chaired a forebear of the state broadcaster\u2019s board from 1960 to 1964.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A\u00a0year before his three-week stay with Mountbatten, Andrews had featured him on an episode of ITV\u2019s This Is Your Life<\/a>, the first time a member of the British royal family appeared on the TV show.<\/p>\n After beginning his media career in Ireland with Radio \u00c9ireann, Andrews left for Britain and worked with the BBC before returning to help establish RT\u00c9. \u00a0<\/p>\n The 1978 visit took place when MI5 was monitoring Mountbatten\u2019s connections to the Kincora Boys’ Home in Belfast, where vulnerable teenagers were systematically raped by British politicians and loyalist paramilitaries.<\/p>\n Despite being aware of this British security services protected Mountbatten and other British establishment figures<\/a>.<\/p>\n