An earlier version of this review first appeared in the Andersonstown News
Tommie Gorman is hanging up his microphone. After decades of reporting from the north for RTÉ, he’s retiring to his home town of Sligo. Two Saturdays ago, Ryan Tubridy had him as guest on THE LATE LATE SHOW (RTÉ) and talked to him about his work ‘up there’.
He’s a marvellously deadpan man, Tommie. He has liver cancer – he lives with it, he calmly tells us. It’s still there, but he gets an injection every month for it. His job, he found, was a wonderful distraction from his health worries.
And his assessment of the north now? “John Hume’s vision has won out. The blood lust is gone – but we must never take it for granted.”
What about a border poll? “It’s inevitable. But we must make sure that unionists aren’t made a homeless people”. And of course the south needs not to promise but to have a quality health system. “Words are cheap.”
As always, I found myself agreeing with some of the things Tommie said and rejecting emphatically some of the other things. He’s right athat we must make sure unionists don’t feel “a homeless people”. And he’s right about the need for the south to show the north (and its own citizens) what a quality health care system looks like. But comparing the south’s health system unfavourably with the north, as Tommie did, in that the south has a ‘two-tier’ system is a bit simplified. Yes, you can get health treatment ‘free’ at the point of delivery in NEI – but many here wait up to two years for an urgent health concern to be addressed. As a result, many take the private route. NOT because it’s better but because it’s quicker.
I’m glad that Tommie, when asked, said a border poll is inevitable. Archbishop Eamon Martin on THE VIEW (B[RITISH)BC ONE) didn’t say it was inevitable. Instead, he urged the need to talk and discuss and plan before any question of a border poll.
Your Excellency: I don’t know of anyone, nationalist, republican or neither, who doesn’t believe we must talk and discuss and lay out plans for a new Ireland before any border poll. A Sinn Féin councillor in Derry last week called f or a citizen’s assembly and a green paper on unity to be created by the southern government. You’re preaching to the converted, Your Excellency. Maybe now have a word with the Dublin government.
But back to Tommie. I had dealings with him on a number of occasions, and I always found him co-operative, supportive and, yes, kind. Which is why it pains me to point out that characterising the Troubles as a “blood lust” is to simplify to the point of distortion. But then, when you work for RTÉ, you have to produce the RTÉ line on the north.
It’s funny, really. Tommie is a wonderful example of how, at a personal level, someone can be a fine human being, while at the political level apparently a simple-minded child.
Have a long and happy retirement, Tommie. I’ll miss you.
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