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Minister Fitzgerald hosts 3rd Annual Missing Persons Day
Homing pigeons are released at the end of the ceremony
Minister Fitzgerald today hosted the 3rd Annual Missing Persons Day in Farmleigh.
Missing Persons Day provides an opportunity to raise public awareness of the numbers of people that go missing in Ireland each year. It is held annually on the first Wednesday in December. The Day commemorates those who have been reported missing and recognises the ongoing suffering for their families and friends. It also serves to raise public awareness of open or unsolved missing persons cases, and provides a platform to highlight the support services that are available to people who have lost a loved one.
Minister Fitzgerald speaking at the ceremony
Minister Fitzgerald spoke about the launch of the new state-of-the-art DNA Database System in November.
The new database will assist An Garda Síochána in finding and identifying missing or unknown persons. A missing and unknown persons index will hold the DNA profiles developed from biological samples relating to missing persons.
The Minister thanked the families who spoke at this year’s ceremony for their generosity and bravery in speaking about their experiences:
Your words are a source of inspiration, as we all deeply admire your ability to keep this very important conversation going. Because this conversation about our missing people must never stop. That is the driving force behind national Missing Persons Day.
Today’s ceremony included personal contributions from Patrick Collins, who spoke about his sister, Sandra Collins, Dympna Kerr who spoke about her brother, Columba McVeigh, Tom Brown, who remembered his sister, Ellen Coss, and Michael Jacob, who spoke about his daughter, Deirdre Jacob. Sir Kenneth Bloomfield from the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains also addressed those present.
Read the full press release here.