Father and daughter who were murdered in their Finaghy home are remembered 50 years later

Five decades later, the Kyle family are remembered and neighbour Elizabeth McPherson has shared their story:

James (Jim) and Elizabeth Kyle lived in Ormonde Park with their three children, Terence, Michael and Rosaleen. Ormonde Park is in Finaghy, South Belfast. It was a mixed and peaceful suburban residential area where neighbours knew and supported one another.

For the Kyle family, the summer of 1976 seemed full of hope and promise. There were unusually hot, long, dry, sunny days. Jim, a devoted husband, father, respected banker and cherished friend had just been promoted from chief inspector of bank branches to general manager with the Trustee Savings Bank (TSB).

Terence and Michael had both graduated from Royal Belfast Academical Institution, moved to England, and were succeeding in their careers. Jim, Elizabeth and Rosaleen, had just returned home from Michael’s wedding in England, where Rosaleen had been a very proud bridesmaid. Rosaleen, aged 19 and still living at home, had just graduated from Methodist College Belfast, and was delighted to have achieved the A-level grades she needed to begin studying dentistry at Queen's University Belfast.

However, living in Belfast in 1976 was not good. One of the deadliest and darkest years of the troubles with approximately 297 murders (civilians 207, paramilitary 26, security forces 62). The average was roughly one person killed every 29–30 hours throughout 1976.

On September 25, 1976, the Troubles landed at the front door of the Kyle family. That evening the Devil himself came to their home, in the guise of a young man carrying a gun with hate in his heart and murder in his mind.

September 25 had been an ordinary Saturday. Jim, Elizabeth and Rosaleen had just finished their tea. Elizabeth was under the weather with a heavy cold, so she took to bed, and left Rosaleen to tidy away the dishes whilst Jim settled to watch television in the drawing room.

The front doorbell rang and Rosaleen went to answer it. The young man on the step asked to speak to her father.

She called him and went back to the kitchen. Jim walked into the hall and was immediately shot by the man.

Rosaleen rushed to her father and was also shot.

Elizabeth, hearing the gunshots, jumped out of bed, ran downstairs and heard Rosaleen say "Oh, Mummy" just before she died.

Jim was lying unconscious on the hall floor gravely injured. He was taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital, survived major chest surgery and was then admitted to the Intensive Care Unit.

The following day, Sunday, Finaghy Lowe Memorial Presbyterian Church, which the Kyle family had been members of for years, opened for the usual morning service. However, after praying for Jim, Roslaeen and the family, the minister sent everyone home as he was not fit to take the service. The whole Finaghy community was shocked and devastated.

Jim lost his fight for life on October 28, 1976. Although the official cause of death was the gunshot wounds he had sustained, Elizabeth always believed that Jim lost the will to live and died of a broken heart after learning that his wee girl had died.

Rosaleen’s murder was reported in the Sunday Press on September 26, 1976 as ‘Another Belfast murder, Girl (19) is Killed.’

On October 29, 1976 the News Letter reported Jim’s death as ‘Terror attack man dies.’

The Belfast Telegraph reported it as ‘Shot bank official dies.’

None of those headlines captured this unimaginable tragedy. How do you live on with this loss? How are you not eaten away by anger? How does your life not become a quest for vengeance? How do you keep your faith?

The coroner’s inquest took place in May 1977, where it is reported that an RUC detective attributed their murders to mistaken identity.

In the Belfast Street Directory James Kyle was described as a ‘chief inspector’ and it was assumed the killers thought he was a police inspector.

In fact, he had been a chief inspector of bank branches until his promotion to general manager two months earlier.

There were unconfirmed reports that the INLA were responsible for their murders.

Elizabeth remained living in the house which she said she could never leave, as she had to stay close to Jim and Rosaleen.

Elizabeth died in 2013 with no answers, no explanation, no apology, no justice, nothing for the murders of her beloved husband and daughter.

However, through her Christian faith, Elizabeth found peace.

She knew she would never get answers or justice; not in this life, but the Devil who called at her door that Saturday evening will still have to stand before God and account for his crime.

By poignant coincidence, Michael, the middle child, died following a short illness on September 24, 2025, on the eve of the forty-ninth anniversary of the murder of his sister, Rosaleen.

Sadly, the Kyle family are one of many families who tragically suffered unimaginable loss through the Troubles and continue to live without answers or justice.

Their story is a reminder of the lives behind the statistics, the lost futures and of the senseless killings of innocent people at that time.

However, the Devil who rang the doorbell in Ormonde Park that Saturday evening will not have the final word.

Hatred took Jim and Rosaleen's lives, but it did not take Elizabeth's faith, or her hope in God's perfect justice.

Murdered with hate. Remembered with love.