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Home Page > Blogs > News blogs > Periscope > 12-Year-Old Rory Staunton’s life is celebrated in style at New York church Over 1,000 throng to say farewell to our laughing boy in Woodside, Queens

Periscope by Niall O'Dowd

12-Year-Old Rory Staunton’s life is celebrated in style at New York church Over 1,000 throng to say farewell to our laughing boy in Woodside, Queens

Posted on Friday, April 06, 2012 at 05:39 AM

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Beloved Rory Staunton

Periscope: Rory Staunton, a beautiful boy, leaves this earth. The hardest column I will ever have to write

My 12-year-old nephew Rory Staunton’s brief life was celebrated in St.Mary’s in Queens, New York yesterday and over 1,200 showed up forcing an outdoor viewing link to be set up.

Rory died in a New York hospital on Sunday last after a toxic bacteria entered his body through an elbow cut received at a basketball game when he fell.

The huge crowd was an extraordinary acknowledgement of the impact of Rory. I saw grown men and women weep.

Many had to turn away from Rory’s parents, my sister Orlaith and brother in law Ciaran, distraught at their sorrow.

Friends I have not seen in decades showed, all bearing witness to the immutable fact that when a child dies a community rallies to the stricken family.

And stricken we are.

Getting up yesterday morning was a painful act, I would have given lots of money to be 1,000 miles away, preferably on an island.

My beloved Rory was dead and a day of sorrow with no peace or joy beckoned.

Yet by the end of it, it was uplifting to feel the love of an Irish community so obviously ready to stand by a family in grief. The rituals of the church, too, on such occasions, have a wonderfully calming effect, providing continuity and sense of perspective.

St.Mary’s was built in 1860, generations of Irish came and prayed, married, and were buried out of that same church. Rory Staunton was just the latest.

My brother in law Ciaran Staunton took the bravest step, eulogizing his own son. He stood before the packed congregation and described the kid he called his “pal,” never his son, who went everywhere with him and was an “unindicted co conspirator” in a number of escapades, most notably when the famously balding Ciaran got Rory to demand of a confused local barber where was the wig his father had ordered weeks before.

But he also talked about the Sunnyside community Rory grew up and prospered in. It really is a slice of new New York where Irish/Jewish and all religious types mix readily.

Rory attended bar mitzvahs, and his Jewish friends helped trim the Christmas tree. The place is an anti-Semites nightmare.
Ciaran described how Rory had prospered at the local non-denominational school, had received an education that showed him windows on the world, and most recently,Ciaran had found a letter to the North Korean government in which Rory had demanded that they explain their hideous policies.

How Ciaran pulled it off I don’t know. He has been so overcome with grief that I feared that he wouldn’t even make it to the church door.

I spoke about the love Ciaran and Orlaith had for each other which sustained them even during their dark night of the soul.

I spoke about my sister and Rory and the little love notes he left her around the house and the chats they had about college and his next big move in life.

I spoke about Kathleen, already missing her big brother and her hero and how brave she has been.

Now it is on to Ireland and the long journey home for Rory who will be buried with his beloved grandmother in Drogheda on Easter Monday.

For Ciaran and Orlaith it will be the last leg of a nightmare week that will be seared in their hearts forever.

I hope Ireland and family there will work its magic, as if often does, and ease their pain.

A tribute to Rory created by his classmates:

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dejemahan | Apr 09, 2012, 12:51 AM EDT

Bless your hearts. I was overcome with absolute shock and great sadness when I read of Rory's sudden passing the other day. Deepest sympathy to all of the Staunton and O'Dowd families. I'm pleased to learn that he is being bestowed with such wonderful honors and that people are being so supportive of the families. I pray that with each passing Ciaran and Orlaith will be comforted. Such a terrible loss indeed for them.

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Mary Burns | Apr 07, 2012, 04:45 AM EDT

What a tragic and sad story. Sincere sympathy to both the Staunton and O'Dowd families at this time, which has to be the most heartbreaking experiene for any family. So nice, but must be hard as well for his family to have him buried in Ireland with his Grandmother. Rory is Up There with The Angels, looking down and helping you all to cope with such a tragic loss. May he Rest In Peace. Ireland.

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Emeraldlorraine | Apr 07, 2012, 03:57 AM EDT

Prayer of Remembrance for Rory and those who love & miss him. 'In the rising of the sun and in its going down, we remember them. In the glowing of the wind & in the chill of winter: In the opening of buds & in the rebirth of spring...So long as we live, they too shall live, for they are now a part of us, as we remember them.' Sympathy & Prayers for your healing. As a mother, my heart aches for the loss of a child. RIP.

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lizconpow57 | Apr 06, 2012, 06:08 PM EDT

To Rory's Family, Am so sad and sorry to hear of Rory's passing. I think it is a beautiful thing you are doing having Rory buried next to his Grandma. God Bless you all and God Bless Rory

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kiltyclogher | Apr 06, 2012, 04:13 PM EDT

ciaran orlaith kathleen may the lord give yee strength to endure the loss of lovely rory.There are no words only that yee are in our prayers and thoughts.as some one who knows you for twenty five years i know how you as parents lived for rory and kathleen. May the lord give yee srength . seamus jane rossa shanley

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irishbob | Apr 06, 2012, 02:52 PM EDT

My condolences go to his family. Hearing of a death is bad enough, but when it's a child there are just no proper words, other than condolences, and even that does not seem good enough. Rory sounds like someone that could have done good in this world, but we'll never know just how good. Rest well young man, you deserve it.

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NebraskaIrish | Apr 06, 2012, 02:40 PM EDT

What a tragedy for you and your whole family. Our condolences. It sounds like Rory was a wonderful young boy. May he rest in peace.

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NebraskaIrish | Apr 06, 2012, 01:25 PM EDT

It's heartbreaking that with all the miracles of modern medicine, a little boy should have to die this way....and heartwarming the way family and friends have rallied around the parents at this time.

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mreinhar2001 | Apr 06, 2012, 01:21 PM EDT

Rest in Peace, Rory Staunton

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Francis3 | Apr 06, 2012, 12:12 PM EDT

Rory, rest in the Peace of Christ and may the Angels lead you into paradise. My condolences to his family. Some day I too will be buried with my Irish born grandmother, we are all connected to our "home".

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SeamusMor | Apr 06, 2012, 12:09 PM EDT

"Peace, peace, he is not dead, he does not sleep. He has awakened from the dream of life." Rory is in Paradise. His family is in pain. Niall's writings about the loss of his beloved nephew have all the poignancy of Michelangelo's Pieta. I pray that the sorrow of this Good Friday be followed by something as sublime as the first Easter Sunday for Rory's family and friends. Perhaps those who loved and admired Rory will band together in his memory to fight for the causes which he embraced. I would gladly contribute to the Rory Staunton Foundation for World Peace, knowing that as President Kennedy said" "On Earth, God's work must truly be our own."

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bunkerhill | Apr 06, 2012, 11:41 AM EDT

Dear Niall - Our hearts go out to you, along with Rory's dear parents, sister and extended family. The loss all of you have experienced is incomprehensible and Rory was a beautiful child. Dear Rory never had a bad day in his young life, and has now passed on to a better life. God Bless all of you.

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Dennisr | Apr 06, 2012, 11:05 AM EDT

My condolences. It's tough to lose so young and so close to your heart. Time will help to ease the pain but unfortunately it will never take it away completely. God and heaven will have a great addition.

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historynw | Apr 06, 2012, 10:49 AM EDT

My condolences to you and your family.

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Searlit | Apr 06, 2012, 10:37 AM EDT

My heart goes out to Rory's parents and all the rest of the broken hearted family.

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