A Tale of two Thomas McMahon's

[I originally wrote and posted this a year ago but thought it was worth reposting today.]

Yesterday, for reasons I'll explain later, I was Googling for information on one Thomas McMahon. I ended up learning about two different Thomas McMahon's - two very different Thomas McMahons. One is famous for taking life and the other for saving lives.

Originally, I was looking for information on Thomas McMahon because Saturday was the 26th anniversary of the IRA bomb that killed Lord Mountbatten while he was on his boat on the West Coast of Ireland. The Thomas McMahon I was looking for information on was the only IRA member convicted in connection to the bombing.

I had read that McMahon was sentenced to life for his role in the death of Mountbatten and the thee others who also perished in the bombing. However, McMahon was paroled and released as part of the 1998 Good Friday Accords. I was curious to see what happened to him since his release. He had renounced the IRA upon his release and said he just wanted to be a carpenter.

I was frankly curious if McMahon had kept to the straight and narrow since his release.

When I Googled Thomas McMahon I wasn't able to find any information about his life post-prison (probably due to him being in some sort of government protection program - just a guess). I did come across another Thomas McMahon though.

This second McMahon was born about the same time but born in the US not Ireland and instead of the paramilitary - this McMahon went into the US Army. The second McMahon did not take life. He gave his own so that others would live. For his sacrifice he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

I couldn't help but wonder if the first McMahon was born in the US whether he would have been more like the second McMahon.