When I heard Bernadette had died I was so happy
Woman cleared of assisting suicide tells her side of the story in new book
THE WOMAN who stood trial accused of assisting in the suicide of her friend has described how her brain flooded with happiness when she was told by phone that her friend was dead.
In a revealing book that will be published next week, Gail O’Rorke tells of her love and devotion for her friend Bernadette Forde, who, in the late stages of multiple sclerosis, took her own life.
She also reveals that Ms Forde delayed her suicide so she could watch the final of Britain’s Got Talent.
Ms O’Rorke had been charged with attempting to help her friend travel to a Swiss euthanasia clinic in March 2011. Ms Forde was stopped from travelling by gardaí.
However, she took her own life at at her south Dublin apartment three months later.
Ms O’Rorke was also accused of helping to acquire the drug used in the suicide. She was acquitted of all charges in a trial that concluded in March of 2015.
Ms O’Rorke stayed in a hotel in Kilkenny on the night of the suicide. She writes in the book: ‘It was arranged that I would ring Bernadette and also a keyholder. I would ask her to check in on Bernadette to see how she was.
‘All she said was, “No problem, I’ll ring you back,” before hanging up. Thankfully we didn’t have to wait too long. When Elizabeth [the keyholder] rang back, she was clearly upset. She told me that Bernadette had passed away. She said she looked so peaceful and beautiful and appeared 20 years younger, sitting in her wheelchair.
‘These words flooded my brain with happiness for my dear friend.’
The mother-of-two from Crumlin in Dublin reveals in her book, Crime Or Compassion?, how she knew of and supported Ms Forde’s plans to end her own life in June 2011, but made sure she was not part of assisting in her death.
The drug was ordered, Ms Forde signed for it and she later chose a date to end her life.
But first, Ms O’Rorke said, she wanted to see Queen Elizabeth’s visit to Ireland and later the visit of President Barack Obama. She also wanted to see the final of reality show Britain’s Got Talent.
‘One day towards the end of May, she sat me down and told me that she had made her decision. The date chosen was Sunday, June 5.’
Ms O’Rorke describes how a plan was set in motion to stay in a Kilkenny hotel on the day Ms Forde was to end her life and how she was to ring a neighbour to check to see if she was dead the following day. The arrangement was to ring Ms Forde’s phone first to see if she answered. If she did not, she was to ring a neighbour who had a key to Ms Forde’s apartment.
She went on to describe how she and her husband Barry made sure to be seen by CCTV cameras while staying Kilkenny.
‘Bernadette wanted me far enough away from Dublin that there would be no question about my whereabouts when she carried out her wish. Over the following days, I continued to make Bernadette’s life as comfortable as possible as she prepared to die with dignity.’
But although she was centrally involved in Bernadette’s plans to end her life, she missed the ceremony where Bernadette’s ashes were scattered on her father’s grave in Co. Longford.
The book relates that Ms O’Rorke had wanted to be there but wasn’t told in advance and ended up missing the service. Ms O’Rorke also tells of her turbulent childhood and how she got to know Ms Forde. She details the three ‘horrible’ years that followed when she was questioned and later charged with assisting in her friend’s death. She described being charged: ‘I felt as though I’d been punched in the stomach. The only word I could get out was “No”.’ She describes the day she was finally acquitted as ‘wonderful’.
‘These words flooded my brain with happiness’ ‘It felt as though I’d been punched in the stomach’