The family of the first child to be killed during the Troubles has received an apology from the police and “significant compensation” - over half a century after the nine-year-old child was shot dead.
Patrick Rooney, the eldest of six children, was shot dead after loyalists and the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) attacked Catholic homes in the Falls area of Belfast on August 15, 1969 - a date that is viewed by many as the beginning of the Troubles.
Hugh McCabe, who was in the British Army and was home on leave at the time, was also shot dead by the RUC in the Divis Flats complex on the same evening.
On the evening of August 15 the RUC entered the Divis Flats complex in three Shorland armoured vehicles and raked the flats with indiscriminate machine gun fire.
Patrick’s parents, Neilly and Alice, had recognised the danger outside their home and huddled their six children in a back bedroom in an attempt to keep them safe. The RUC discharged approximately 200 high velocity rounds striking at least 13 properties.
An RUC bullet ripped through the wall of the bedroom where the Rooney family were sheltering. Patrick was shot through the head and his killing was witnessed by his entire family. The family were unable to secure an ambulance or medical assistance and members of the public and his father, Neilly, had to carry young Patrick for some distance in order to reach an ambulance.
Following a lengthy investigation by the Police Ombudsman, the Public Prosecution Service directed no prosecution in 2020.
Patrick's father Neilly tirelessly campaigned for justice for his son over the intervening years before his death in 2013. His mother Alice took a civil case against the PSNI Chief Constable which has now been settled.
Mrs. Rooney’s solicitor, Katie McAllister of Madden and Finucane said: “It has taken 56 years for a chief constable to offer an apology for the unlawful death of Patrick Rooney, which occurred in the most violent, indiscriminate and in fact avoidable circumstances.
"Patrick was killed in his own bedroom, the very place that he should have been most safe from danger. The RUC fired 200 rounds of high velocity machine gun fire at no identifiable targets, raking poorly constructed flats indiscriminately. Death or serious injury was the inevitable consequence of the RUC’s shocking and abhorrent conduct.
"While a financial settlement does not right the RUC’s wrongdoing, we are satisfied that we have been able to secure a significant settlement, the terms of which are confidential, and moreover an apology for Mrs. Rooney, who is now 88 years of age.”
Speaking on the 50th anniversary of Patrick's death in 2019, his mother Alice recalled: “Neilly came in and said it was getting bad outside, to get the kids into the one room and then bullets and the tracers then came through.
“His (Neilly’s) head was grazed but the blood was running down his head. We thought Patrick had fainted at the sight of the blood but he had been shot himself. Patrick slid down the wall, I was saturated with blood, Neilly tried to get out for help, I was squealing for help,” she recalled.
“I remember the last words Patrick said to me that night going up to bed was to wake him up for 8 a.m. Mass as it was a feast day, the Feast of Our Lady, and that was the last words he said.”
