BOBBY GOURLEY: BOBBY GOURLEY, a key figure in trade unionism in Northern Ireland, brought a left-of-centre Protestant working class view to the heart of the movement. He was twice chair of the Northern Ireland Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. Being a modest man, he was reluctant to take the job on both occasions.
For 23 years he was the Northern organiser of the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers. One of his main personal characteristics was helpfulness. He always wanted to sort things out for those who needed assistance, whatever their background; that always took precedence over official procedure.
He was strongly aware of loyalist working-class sensitivities. He acknowledged the difficulties facing these communities and as a trade unionist and member of the Progressive Unionist Party, he tried to help them in from the cold.
A community worker from a Catholic background said: “He was one of the bravest people I ever met in terms of tackling sectarianism.”
His anti-sectarianism wasn’t abstract. He lived in the loyalist working-class area of Monkstown, north of Belfast. In the 1990s, he had a major dispute with loyalist paramilitaries in the area.
He came from a loyalist working-class background himself, born in Ebor Street in the Village area of Belfast. At 14 he left school to work in a linen mill. Later, he served an apprenticeship as a toolmaker. As a full-time official, he cut his teeth in a long and bitter dispute at the Abbey Meats plant in Newtownabbey in 1980s.
His support for inclusiveness also included inclusiveness in the trade union movement and he made sure smaller unions had their say without their voices being drowned out by the bigger battalions.
He was predeceased by his wife Annie. He is survived by his children Linda and Robert, his sisters Joan and Valerie, grandchildren Laura, Robert, Jodie and Ross, and uncle Victor.
Robert (Bobby) Gourley: born March 6th, 1943; died January 27th, 2012