Missing.ie

I discovered an Irish blog entry the other day that listed all the missing people in Limerick and encouraged everyone to go and pay Missing.ie a visit. Now I can’t for the life of me remember which blog that was and can’t link to that particular entry. Mea culpa.

Either way, that recommendation is indeed a valid one: There appear to be more and more Irish people missing these days. Joseph Mullaly from Cork is the latest one I am familiar with. I know some people who know him (well, in Ireland you always know someone who knows someone!) and a site like this does provide a great local service.

From the Missing Persons list to date 68 have been found (38 of them deceased). Missing.ie also has a Lost Contact section: 134 of these families have been reunited, some of them after decades. My fiancée herself had a brother that was missing in London for more than 30 years and only in the late 1990s made contact with the family again. He has since passed away. So these are by far not unusual cases.

I do hope that some of those missing will soon be found alive. Of course, there are a number that will quite clearly not have “just” gone missing, but that ended up murdered and I have no doubt that for a good number of those cases there are people out there who know more, but are not willing to talk.

One of the most heart wrenching cases is that of Lisa Dorrian from Co. Down. A murder inquiry has since been launched, though her body has never been found. Her family has set up their own website and launched a YouTube video in the hope that some day they can finally bring some closure to this case and discover what really happened to Lisa.

So do pay Missing.ie a short visit and have a quick glance at the photos. At the worst this may take a minute out of your schedule, at the best you may be able to provide some valuable evidence and help locate somebody’s loved one.