The heroes need help: Finding a home for Cork's search and recovery volunteers

The volunteers of Cork City Missing Persons Search and Recovery make one simple promise to the families of missing persons: “We will never give up" - Now they are asking Cork City Council to help find them a home.

Cork City Missing Persons Search & Recovery Unit: Chris O'Donovan, David Shine, Filipe Pombinho, Dinny Kielyand Dave Varian. Picture: Jim Coughlan.

It's a beautiful morning on the old Port of Cork premises, as volunteers from Cork City Missing Persons’ Search and Recovery (CCMPSAR) suit up in wet-gear and life jackets and head down the slipway to their boats, the Nora Flynn and the Aidan Brearten, both donated to the group, and both named after people lost to the Lee.

This is CCMPSAR’s 20th anniversary, and its trained volunteers help the gardaí and the Irish Coast Guard, and return loved ones to their families, giving them some closure and peace.

Now, they are asking Cork City Council to help them find a home.

The group was in the news in May, when, as part of a planned search of Crosshaven Harbour, and using new sonar equipment, they located a submerged car off Hugh Coveney Pier. It contained the remains of Barry Coughlan, a 23-year-old man missing since 2004.

In putting the families of missing persons first, volunteers are reluctant to talk about their work, but Barry Coughan’s heartbroken family asked that instead of sending flowers, well-wishers made a donation to CCMPSAR.

Chris O'Donovan, search coordinator and treasurer, showing the Starfish 990 Side Scan Sonar. Picture: Jim Coughlan.

CCMPSAR’s volunteers are operating from temporary headquarters in the Marina Commercial Park, a home for which they are grateful, but which is becoming increasingly unsuited to their needs.

“We’d be out on the street if not for the Marina Commercial Park,” says Chris O’Donovan, CCMPSAR treasurer, “but we need a place with running water, where we can clean and store our equipment overnight, and we can’t do that there.” He says volunteers are often on the water for 12 hours or more, and it would be nice to have a place where they could have a shower and change their clothes afterwards.

“When we’re searching for a missing person, their poor families are often watching and waiting on the riverbank,” Mr O’Donovan says. “We’d love to be able to offer them a place to have a cup of tea in a bit of comfort.

“That’s why we’re appealing to Cork City Council to help us,” he says.

“It doesn’t have to be beside the river, it just needs to be relatively central. The city is dotted with derelict premises, and the council owns a share of them.”

Dave Varian, the unit secretary, says that without a permanent address, the registered charity is unable to apply for grants or lottery funding. “We’re not looking for a state-of-the-art premises,” Mr Varian says. “All we’re asking is give us four walls and a roof, and we’ll fund-raise for the rest.

Dinny Kiely, volunteer and longest-serving member, in the equipment van. Picture: Jim Coughlan.

“We’re stewarding every event in the city for free, and the council is quick enough to call us any time there’s a tree stuck under a bridge, so fair is fair.”

Before we head out on the water, Mr O’Donovan advises that we slather on sun-screen, because, he says: “No matter what the weather, out on the water you’ll always be frozen, and you’ll still end up with a burnt head.”

First order of business is a patrol of the Lee’s south channel, and Dinny Kiely, CCMPSAR’s longest-serving volunteer, hops into the Aidan Brearten, alongside fellow volunteer, Filipe Pombinho.

We motor under the Éamon de Valera Bridge, and the Clontarf Bridge, past City Hall and its vaccination canopies, under Parnell Bridge, passing Union Quay and its drinking canopies. On both sides, the quay walls are lined with seaweed, exposed at low tide.

CCMPSAR patrols the river every few days, both channels, and they say the Lee has its own currents, and there are places where they always know to look for a missing person, sometimes even before anyone is reported missing.

“Sometimes,” Mr Kiely says, “Caitriona Twomey, in Penny Dinners, will tell us she’s worried that she hasn’t seen such-and-such a person in a while, and we’ll know it could be bad news.” Along the quay walls, by the pedestrian Trinity Bridge, grow daisies pink and white, while further along are splashes of yellow and purple flowers among the tufts of wild barley.

As we travel up past RTÉ Cork and Father Mathew’s Holy Trinity Church, Felipe says they do what they do because they have seen, many times, the anguish of families of missing persons, and the lonely peace that closure can bring.

'If you see us looking for your loved one, you can rest assured we won’t ever stop.' Picture: Jim Coughlan.

Reflected sunlight dapples the underside of Parliament Bridge, and the lads turn the boat. Dinny points to the weir just above the bridge, and Felipe says the boat won’t make it over in low water.

As we head back toward the Port of Cork, Felipe and Dinny recall the people whom they have found in the river, including their names, and talk as though they knew them personally. They tell the stories of those who died, and talk about the grief of the families, and the heartbreak of those who wait in the limbo of not knowing where their loved ones are.

They probably don’t realise they’re doing it, but, as they talk, Felipe and Dinny lower their voices, speaking of the missing and the dead, and of their families, with respect and kindness.

Later, on the Nora Flynn, out on the water by Tivoli, Chris O’Donovan and Dave Varian map the riverbed, using the new sonar equipment that helped to find Barry Coughlan. It cost €8,500, and CCMPSAR chairman, Dave Shine, skippering the boat, says it was worth every penny: “We wouldn’t have found Barry without it.”

Normally, CCMPSAR’s annual running costs are €24,500. Last year, they were €70,000, because they had to buy a new jeep, and the sonar. An €8,000 drone paid for itself two weeks ago, when it was instrumental in the finding and safe rescue of a woman missing from her home.

Insurance costs are astronomical, too, Mr O’Donovan says, and if not for Cork people’s generous support, the volunteers would not be able to operate.

Dave Varian lost his brothers, Kenneth and Jim, to the river, in 1995 and 2006, and he says that every volunteer has been touched by tragedy. “That’s what motivates us to come out here.”

Mr Varian says they receive no State funding, and rely entirely on donations from the people of Cork. All they are asking is for a little help from Cork City Council, so they can continue to help families in the worst times of their lives.

Mr Varian is baffled that there seems to be no political will to help them, with only one politician in 20 years visiting them, Sinn Féin councillor Mick Nugent, two weeks ago.

“The people we have helped, they all remember us, and they all vote,” he says.

In the meantime, while they wait in hope of help from City Hall, the work of CCMPSAR continues.

“We will never give up,” Dave Varian says. “That is our promise to the families of missing persons. If you see us looking for your loved one, you can rest assured we won’t ever stop.”

Donations can be made at www.missing.ie or on CCMPSAR’s Facebook page.