When Tommie pitched one of his last ever pieces of journalism to me two weeks ago, it was after attending the recent reunion of former participants in the Northern Ireland peace process at the US ambassador’s residence in the Phoenix Park. 

As noted in his column reflecting on the event a few days later, several key players had already passed away: Martin McGuinness, John Hume, Seamus Mallon and David Trimble. In his phone call to discuss coverage of the gathering, Tommie mentioned how rare such opportunities would become. 

Admiring 91-year-old former US Senator George Mitchell’s willingness to travel across the ocean, Tommie wrote: “He has fought off different versions of cancer several times. There was a sense that even with George Mitchell’s track record of endurance, he and his fellow panellists may not have such a ‘reunion of the Band’ again”. 

As he prepared to take a break for major medical treatment himself, our friend was of course thinking of his own ability to attend future commemorations. Tommie was the voice who brought news of the long implementation of the Good Friday Agreement to Irish audiences as RTÉ’s Northern Editor from 2001 to 2021. He, too, was a member of “the Band”. 

He was very much aware of his own mortality after three decades battling cancer, as he detailed in a very personal column last New Year’s Day. Not just as a threat, but also as an opportunity to find purpose and make new friends while advocating for better patient services for his rare form of the condition, travelling across Europe to get treatment, and witnessing the leaps and bounds of medical science.

“Enormous fulfilment flows from being together and doing positive work. But occasionally there is the hammer-blow reminder of how the disease can become so aggressive that no combination of expertise and will-to-live can stop it,” he wrote.

In that same phone call, days before his death this Tuesday, Tommie was also full of enthusiasm about the power of politics to improve people’s lives. Europe was consumed by election results indicating a rise of divisiveness but he chose to focus on the long view: In that room at the US ambassador’s residence, leaders who had endured much more entrenched division had achieved peace for their people. They included Gerry Adams, Bertie Ahern and Reg Empey.

“We have learned to say ‘yes’ or even ‘maybe’ to what were ‘no’ and no-go areas of our lives.”

Tommie’s deep understanding of the enduring fragility of peace in Northern Ireland transpired through many of the columns he wrote during his collaboration with The Currency over the past three years. His piece on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement last year was a key illustration of this.

At a time when all the focus was on the apparent dead-end to restore the power-sharing Executive in Stormont, he highlighted the foundations of togetherness that outlived such short-term squabbles. “A critical element in the story of change, south and north, is how we have learned to say ‘yes’ or even ‘maybe’ to what were ‘no’ and no-go areas of our lives,” he wrote.

Tommie’s optimism was not blind to the challenges and weaknesses holding back politics in Northern Ireland. His surgical analysis of Sinn Féin did not shy away from difficult questions on the party’s ability to deal with its past as it closed in on power north and south of the border. His blow-by-blow coverage of the DUP under Jeffrey Donaldson’s leadership was second to none. 

As a veteran journalist covering Northern Ireland, his expertise extended into Westminster. He captured the cruel lessons of power going to the heads of politicians in his analysis of Boris Johnson’s slow-motion fall from the top and offered The Currency’s readers unique insights into the team of Labour operators now poised to usher Keir Starmer into Number 10. 

When Michael Cogley became The Currency’s first London Editor last month, Tommie was immediately available to share this knowledge with him. Our entire team is hugely indebted to Tommie not only for the privilege of having published the final chapter of his career in journalism but also for the guidance and support he gave us behind the scenes. 

This will outlive him.

Further reading

All of Tommie Gorman’s columns for The Currency