‘Mr Gormley lifted out his dying son and called for help but was fired at again’
RORY GORMLEY (14) BELFAST
DIED NOVEMBER 27, 1972
Every evening, shortly after five o’clock, the 10 Gormley children would take their set positions at the table in the long, narrow working kitchen of their home in Windsor Park in Belfast — boys on one side, girls on the other — as their mother, Doreen, served out the dinner.
The fifth boy born into the busy household, 14-year-old Rory, was fascinated by nature.
“He built a bird table in the back garden and he saved every little creature that crawled all around him,” says his sister, also called Doreen.
“He actually joined the World Wildlife Fund and was very proud of it — he wanted to be a vet when he grew up.”
But with 10 children, the only pets allowed at home were rabbits and goldfish.
Rory’s father, Peter, was an eye surgeon in Belfast’s Mater Hospital and was involved with the civil rights movement; both parents were keen that their children get a good education and Rory and his brothers were sent to St Malachy’s College on the Antrim Road. Holidays were spent in the family cottage in Co Donegal.
“We absolutely loved the holidays,” remembers Doreen.
“They were so carefree. Rory would swim in the sea every day at Carrickfinn beach, play hurling and run around the sand dunes.”
A “slim, fit, quiet boy”, Rory had been an altar boy and was learning to play the piano accordion.
He loved playing soccer with his friends and following his favourite team, Everton, and never missed Match of the Day on Saturday night.
Each morning, Peter would drive three of his sons, their friend and Doreen to school on his way to the Mater.
Having dropped Doreen off first, at St Dominic’s on the Falls Road, Peter took a shortcut through the loyalist Shankill area, as their usual route had been closed by the Army.
As he did so, UVF gunmen opened fire. Rory was killed; his father and his brother Paul were injured.
“Mr Gormley lifted out his dying son and, as he ran down the street calling for help, he was fired on again.”
It was believed the family were targeted because their school uniforms identified them as Catholics.
From then on, there was an empty place at the dinner table. Rory’s month’s mind fell at Christmas — his presents were to include an encyclopaedia, some books on animals and an Everton annual.