Tommie Gorman's curiosity, kindness and love for life remembered
Sligo Rovers players line up as the coffin of Tommie Gorman is carried into in Our Lady Star of the Sea Church in Ransboro, Co Sligo. Picture: PA Wire
Under brilliant blue skies at Our Lady of the Sea Church in Ransboro, Co Sligo on Saturday afternoon, Joe Gorman delivered a eulogy for his late father Tommie that was amongst the finest I have ever heard.
Equal parts funny, moving, generous and loyal, Mr. Gorman captured the essence of man beloved by so many in the journalism and broadcasting community and beyond. There are not many eulogies that include such direct references to Roy Keane, the Reverand Ian Paisley and Gorman’s beloved Sligo Rovers, but such was the breath of Tommie Gorman’s canon that nobody was surprised to hear such names mentioned in the telling of his life’s story.
It speaks volumes of the man that those namechecks were so easily overshadowed by the recalling of the late broadcaster's most admirable qualities; his curiosity, his kindness and his unconditional love for life.
This was a funeral that can only be described as a bittersweet celebration of a brilliant life. Gorman passed away on Tuesday at the age of 68.
He retired from in April 2021 after a career spanning 40 years. Colleagues past and present, as well as Taoiseach Simon Harris, former Sinn Féin and DUP leaders Gerry Adams and Arlene Foster, and First Minister Michelle O’Neill gathered to pay their respects to the well-loved broadcaster whose career included signature postings for the national broadcaster in Brussels as European Correspondent, and most memorably in Northern Ireland during the most pivotal period of the peace process.
It was telling that Foster and Peter Robinson attended alongside Adams and O’Neill, a totem of the trust Gorman enjoyed on both sides of the political divide.
Despite many well-known faces in the congregation, it was Gorman’s Sligo Rovers who provided the star turn. The local League of Ireland club - one of the great loves of Gorman’s life - performed a guard of honour as he was carried into the church, and their red and white strip could be seen throughout the crowd. The funeral cortege, led by his wife Ceara, son Joe and daughter Moya, had earlier made a farewell stop at the Showgrounds, the home to Sligo Rovers.
Gorman had been a lifelong supporter, his son Joe describing how he skipped his final journalism exams to go watch the 'Bit O’Red' watch Red Star Belgrade in Europe. He didn’t graduate because of his football-inspired truancy.
Typically, he had no regrets. In more recent years, despite failing health, he was a prominent advocate for the club and one of the most active fundraisers for the redevelopment of the Show Grounds.
In a fitting tribute, Tommie’s beloved Sligo Rovers pulled off a 2-0 victory over Shamrock Rovers at the Showgrounds last night – hours before he made his final trip.
“It’s a great privilege that I don’t have to tell anybody here what my father thought of them,” said Gorman’s son Joe, “they already knew, because he told them.”
Speaking on the way into the church, Gerry Adams spoke of Gorman’s role in the peace process, describing how the Sligo man had helped build "gentle" bridges between both sides of the conflict.
"He got frustrated and of course, sometimes he drove many Republicans mad, but he just loved the way the process could move from conflict to killing to relative peace and he helped get both sides talking," Mr. Adams said.
In 1994 Gorman was diagnosed with neuroendocrine tumours (Net), a rare form of cancer, with which he lived bravely and with little complaint.
His son Joe spoke candidly about the critical life decisions his dad and his mum faced upon his diagnosis, a young couple living in Brussels with a little baby on their hands. That Gorman’s best work came in the subsequent thirty years was indicative of his can-do attitude, and his unwillingness to let an illness define him.
Chief Celebrant Reverand Christopher McCann told the congregation of his close relationship with Mr Gorman over the years, and how the late man always had “never-ending” questions for him – his journalistic qualities shining through far past the television screen.
“History will be pleased with the part that Tommie Gorman played,” he said. Few in attendance would disagree.
In closing his eulogy, Joe Gorman went one better. Paying tribute to his father, he simply said: “If grief is the price we pay for love, we got our money's worth with Tommie Gorman.”
The rain held off. The skies stayed blue, and between a sea of red jerseys Gorman was carried down to Kilmacowen Cemetery for the last time, surrounded by those who loved him.
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