Dear Lookleft,
A statement made in the obituary of Paul Gormley in LookLeft magazine (Vol.22 Issue 21) must be corrected.
The statement reads “Forced to enlist in the Irish army at the age of 14 by his father…” This is totally untrue. Paul, for his own reasons at that time, desperately wanted to join the army school of music. Our father did not want him to go. As a staunch Republican and member of Sinn Féin, he regarded the Free State Army as “the wrong army”. My mother sided with Paul and my father reluctantly signed the papers.
There is a separate question as to whether he should have agreed in the end but to state he forced Paul to join is not correct.
We look forward to seeing the error corrected in a future issue of your publication. It is very important to us as a family.
Yours sincerely,
Aine O’Connell (sister of Paul Gormley, on behalf of his surviving siblings and sons)
Editors’ Note – LookLeft sincerly appoligises for this mistake.
