First child killed in Troubles 40 years ago

Forty years ago today the first child was killed in the northern conflict as violence broke out in Derry and then Belfast.

Patrick Rooney was nine years’ old.

His father was lifting him out of bed in their home on the Falls Road to take him to safety when he was shot in his arms by an armoured RUC vehicle which opened fire.

Cornelius Rooney, a former British soldier, has only recently spoken about the tragedy that killed his young son and blighted his own life.