Community may never recover, says priest
But according to a priest who is comforting his family, the disappearance of the schoolboy has affected an entire community so much, it may never recover.
“Trust and innocence seem (now) to be from a former era. That’s my worry and my fear,” Fr Billy O’Donovan said.
The curate yesterday visited Robert’s parents, Mark and Majella, at the family home in Midleton, Co Cork.
“They’re extraordinarily brave people. Every time I have talked to them they speak about those who are suffering from the tsunami. They have the generosity in their own suffering to think of the suffering of those people too,” he said.
Fr O’Donovan said the plight of the family had touched the hearts of people far and wide, an example of which was a man who phoned him from Drogheda, Co Louth, last Monday night to ask if he could help.
That man, along with nearly 300 other volunteers, joined the search again yesterday. “There has been tremendous support and solidarity,” Fr O’Donovan said.
As a re-enactment of the last known movements of the Midleton CBS primary school student was taking place yesterday, pupils at the senior school next door held a prayer session.
CBS secondary school principal Denis Ring said a number of pupils had joined in the search for 11-year-old Robert, who hasn’t been seen since he left his home at 2.15pm on Tuesday, January 4.
They are now preparing to hand out hundreds of posters depicting Robert, his BMX bicycle and mobile phone.
“I wonder if we are far off the day when we’re going to have security guards in schools, as they have in America,” Mr Ring said.
While stressing that panic hasn’t set in among parents and pupils, he said it was obvious Robert’s disappearance had heightened awareness: “We are at a watershed. I know of one parent who said to me ‘I won’t sleep until this matter is resolved’. I believe parents will think twice in future about where they let their children go,” Mr Ring said.
Teacher Maura Smyth has told pupils if they see anything suspicious, no matter what, to report it immediately to a member of staff or the gardaí. “The lads in his classroom must feel the difference that their playmate is missing,” she said.
