1 Clasp - NORTHERN IRELAND (24384406 PTE D. A. WATTS PARA). Naming is officially impressed. Court-mounted with pinback and clip, original ribbon, extremely fine. Accompanied by a Copy of a Parachute Regiment Badge (in silvered metal, measuring 68 mm (w) x 41 mm (h), residue on the reverse from previous board mounting); along with a magazine article with photograph illustrating the aftermath of the Warrenpoint bomb attack by the terrorist Irish National Liberation Army on August 27, 1979.
Footnote: The Warrenpoint ambush or Narrow Water ambush, also called the Warrenpoint massacre or Narrow Water massacre, was a guerrilla attack by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) on August 27, 1979. The IRA's South Armagh Brigade ambushed the British Army with two large roadside bombs at Narrow Water Castle (near Warrenpoint) in Northern Ireland. The first bomb was aimed at a British Army convoy and the second targeted the reinforcements sent to deal with the incident. IRA volunteers hidden in nearby woodland also allegedly fired on the troops. The castle is on the banks of the Newry River, which marks the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Eighteen British soldiers were killed and six were seriously injured, making it the deadliest attack on the British Army during "the Troubles". An English civilian was also killed and another injured when British soldiers fired across the border after the first blast. The attack happened on the same day that the IRA assassinated The 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma.