The daughter of IRA victim Earl Mountbatten has described the historic meeting between the Queen of England and Martin McGuinness as ‘a wonderful moment’.

Countess Mountbatten lost her 14-year-old son Nicholas, her father and her mother-in-law when the IRA blew up their boat off the Sligo coastline in 1979.

Four people in all lost their lives that day but Countess Mountbatten has heralded the ground breaking meeting and handshake between Sinn Fein’s McGuinness and the British monarch.

She told the Irish Independent that the Queen had her ‘full support’ ahead of meeting with former IRA man McGuinness.

The 88-year-old Countess Mountbatten told the paper: “I think it’s wonderful. I’m hugely grateful that we have come to a point where we can behave responsibly and positively.”

The Countess survived the Sligo explosion.

The Independent also reports on comments made in the past regarding her husband by the current Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams.

He is reported as saying: “What the IRA did to him is what Mountbatten had been doing all his life to other people; and with his war record I don’t think he could have objected to dying in what was clearly a war situation.

“He knew the danger involved in coming to this country. In my opinion, the IRA achieved its objective: people started paying attention to what was happening in Ireland.”