Father gives up hope of finding son alive
The family of Ciaran Cassidy, 22, have not heard from him since he left his home at Finsbury Park to take the train to work in central London last Thursday morning.
His father Sean Cassidy, who is originally from Swalinbar, Co Cavan, believes his son was on board the Piccadilly line train that was bombed near King's Cross station.
After extensive checks of the hospitals for any news of the shop worker, Mr Cassidy said the family had given up hope of finding him alive.
"We have no hope whatsoever. I believe he is gone," said the 57-year-old postman.
"We are definite he was on the train. People have spotted him getting onto the front or second carriage people on the platform at Finsbury Park who were further down the train."
Mr Cassidy and his wife Veronica spent the day of the bombings trying in vain to ring their son, who was born in London but holds an Irish passport.
"When his boss rang and said he hadn't been at work, then alarm bells started. We could do nothing at that stage. All we could do was sit down and think about it," Mr Cassidy told RTÉ.
"We rang around some of his friends, then we just sat watching the telly, the news. We were still hopeful at that stage that there were trains trapped in the Underground."
Mr Cassidy said the police had not made any contact with them until a liaison officer visited their home yesterday to gather Ciaran's details for identification purposes.
Mr Cassidy, who also has one daughter, Lisa, 26, said the family was still getting all their information on the rescue operation from the TV news and other families with missing relatives were in the same position.
