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The Missing Irish People website (www.missing.ws
) was established in May 2000 by Fr Aquinas Duffy, following the disappearance
of his cousin, Limerick Man Aengus Shanahan. In 2001, Mr David Linehan from
Cork requested that the details of his missing father be placed on the website.
His father was subsequently found deceased by his family. It was shortly after
this tragedy that David Linehan and Cormac Cremin and Fr Aquinas Duffy (who
continues to run the website) and others set about campaigning for a helpline
and for better resources for the families of missing people.
A link up of all the families on the website
was formed so that we could keep in touch with each other or put people who
had someone missing in touch with some of the families. A limited helpline was
also set up with an oncall paging system. After much campaigning and many media
interviews, a state aided helpline for the families of the missing was established
by victim support an dran for two and a half years with the hjelp of a grant
formt eh dept of Justice. It ceased on 31st March 2005 as a result of funding
being withdrawn by the Dept of Justice. It is good to report however that in
April 2009, Missing in Ireland Support Services (a new organsiation set up to
support the families of the missing) succeeded in re-establishing the National
Missing Persons Helpline through grant aid and charitable donations. The helpline
number which is a local call from anywhere in the Republic of Ireland is 1890-442
552. Their website, www.missingpersons.ie,
also carries appeals for people missing from or in Ireland and whose cases have
been reported to the Gardai.
The Missing Persons Association was formed
in 2002 to bring together groups and people whose aim is to locate missing persons.
It can help with both the search for missing people and also to highlight the
issue of missing persons. The MPA now has its own rescue
boat in Cork and is able to do land and river searches in conjunction with
the Mallow inshore search and rescue and the Canine search and rescue (Cork).
The MPA is also available to families for
advice and for assisting families where possible. All of its members are voluntary.
The Missing Irish People website is also linked to and associated with the MPA.
MPA also has a 24 hour paging system if people
need to contact them in relation to a missing person (087-9609885). The MPA
now has charitable status (charity number 14826) with a registered account with
Lough Credit union,Bandon road Cork City (Account No 73951V).
The MPA is grateful to Gecas
Shannon who presented a donation in 2003 which enabled us to run an advertising
campaign, purchase underwater equipment, and to have the website redesigned.
For more information write to
Mr David Linehan, 60 Innishannon Road, Fairhill, Cork City Ireland or contact
can be made through this website.
To Whom it Concerns,
The Missing persons association is a Voluntary organization, of highly trained personal, who are available to assist Families of missing persons, in trying to find missing people.
We offer practical support and advice to those who need it, we in conjunction with other voluntary organizations, such as Mallow Search and Rescue, also conduct searches both on land and water. So that there is no misunderstanding about the status of the people we search for, it is not just missing people who are deceased, we also search for Missing persons who are alive.
We also offer the services of our associate Fr. Aquinas Duffy, webmaster of www.missing.ws where we can put missing persons photographs and details, This is then made available to the world wide public to view and the details stay on the site until the missing person is found.
We strongly advise people who report a loved one missing to the Gardai that the next call you should make should be to the missing persons association.
We can be contacted twenty four hours a day on 087-9609885. Our services are free of charge.
It is important to note that 99%of people
who go missing are found safe and well.
Finally if anybody out there has information
on any Missing person, do what you know in your heart is right, and pass the
information on to the Gardaí or to the missing persons association (087-9609885).
All calls will be treated in strict confidence.
Yours Sincerely
David Linehan
Sec M.P.A
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