The family of Patrick Rooney, the first child to die in the Troubles, has finally received an official apology and the promise of significant compensation from the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), more than half a century after the nine-year-old was shot dead in his home. The long-awaited resolution, announced in Belfast’s High Court on December 11, 2025, follows years of campaigning by the Rooney family, who say the outcome is both “bittersweet and too little, too late.”
Patrick Rooney’s death in August 1969 marked a tragic milestone in Northern Ireland’s history. As reported by BBC News, the oldest of six children, Patrick was sheltering in a bedroom of the family’s flat in the Divis tower blocks in west Belfast, alongside his parents and siblings, when Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) officers opened fire from vehicle-mounted machine guns outside. The police were attempting to disperse rioters during the early days of the conflict that would become known as the Troubles. Up to 200 high velocity rounds were discharged, striking multiple apartments—including the one where the Rooney family huddled in fear.
Patrick was shot through the head in front of his family. His parents, Neilly and Alice, were unable to get medical assistance to the scene. In a desperate effort, Patrick’s father and neighbors carried him through the chaos to reach an ambulance, but the boy died in hospital around two hours later. According to The Irish News, the trauma left deep scars: “When we went back to the flat, we wouldn’t go upstairs for months, we had to sleep in the living-room, on the floor, because we were too afraid to go up the stairs because we thought he was still up the stairs,” recalled Patrick’s younger brother, Con Rooney, who was eight at the time.
The legal case, brought by Patrick’s mother Alice—now 88 and unable to attend court due to ill health—accused the police of negligence, breach of statutory duty, assault and battery, conspiracy to commit an unlawful act, and misfeasance in public office. The family’s lawyers argued that not only was Patrick’s death avoidable, but that the RUC had failed to properly investigate the killing or discipline the officers responsible. “The RUC fired 200 rounds of high velocity machine gun fire at no identifiable targets, raking poorly constructed flats indiscriminately,” said the family’s solicitor, Katie McAllister of Madden and Finucane, as quoted by BBC News. “This 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 2021 Police Ombudsman report into the killing of Patrick and three others found glaring operational and investigative failures. The report, cited by Belfast Telegraph, stated that the use of Browning machine guns mounted on RUC Shorland vehicles to quell civil unrest was “fundamentally flawed, disproportionate and dangerous.” Investigators were unable to identify which vehicle fired the fatal shot, and no former officers were ever prosecuted due to a lack of evidence. The Ombudsman concluded that officers were never held to account, and the RUC took steps to prevent an adequate or effective probe into the circumstances.
On December 11, 2025, the High Court heard that a settlement had been reached. Patrick’s mother had agreed to a “satisfactory full and final settlement” with the PSNI, which included significant compensation for the family and a formal apology. The apology, read aloud in court, stated: “As a result of negotiations, the plaintiff Mrs Rooney, has agreed a satisfactory full and final settlement of this action with the Police Service of Northern Ireland. The PSNI acknowledges the hurt and suffering caused to the family and wishes to sincerely apologise for the loss they endured.”
However, the compensation figure remains undisclosed, pending formal authorization from the Policing Board, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Finance at Stormont. Mr Justice Kevin Rooney, presiding over the case, urged authorities to fast-track the approval process, describing the situation as “an extraordinarily sad case.” He added, “The trauma this must have resulted in (for the family) is just unimaginable. His mother is still alive and clearly wants full resolution for what happened in the most tragic circumstances as soon as possible. Now that counsel has sensibly resolved this matter after such a long time there should be no further delay.”
For the Rooney family, the outcome is a mixture of vindication and lingering pain. Outside court, Con Rooney reflected on the decades-long struggle: “It was never about the money, you can’t put a price on life, but the police must be apologising for something.” He noted that his late father, Neilly, who died in 2013, had asked the family to keep fighting for justice. “My daddy died in 2013, and on his death bed he asked us to keep going and don’t let this go.”
Con’s memories of the night his brother died remain vivid and harrowing. “We were all brought in to the back room to shelter and a couple of minutes later we could just see all the red flashes and my father turned round and said to my mother ‘Alice I’ve been shot’. It was actually a bullet had grazed him and my mummy got a graze across the cheek. She went to lift Patrick and whenever she looked at her arm it was covered in blood. Patrick was put on the bed and my mummy ran down the stairs screaming.”
After Patrick’s death, the family’s ordeal didn’t end. “We were frightened out of our lives, they petrified us,” Con told Belfast Live. Even returning home after the funeral was traumatic; the children were too afraid to go upstairs, haunted by the memory of what had happened.
The family’s solicitor, Katie McAllister, stressed that the apology and compensation, while important, could never fully right the wrongs done to the Rooneys. “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.” She also pointed out that it had taken 56 years for a chief constable to offer an apology for the unlawful death.
The shooting of Patrick Rooney remains a stark example of the dangers faced by civilians, especially children, during the Troubles. The Police Ombudsman’s findings that the RUC’s actions were “disproportionate and dangerous” cast a long shadow over the force’s conduct in those early, violent days. For the Rooney family, the court’s settlement and apology bring some closure, but the sense of justice denied lingers—a reminder of the profound personal costs of conflict and the long, often painful, journey toward accountability.