Search continues for Irishman feared dead

EFFORTS were continuing last night to find an Irishman feared killed in the Haitian earthquake.

Andrew Grene, who works with the United Nations and who has joint Irish/American citizenship, was in the UN building in capital city Port-au-Prince when it collapsed.

Yesterday his twin brother, Gregory, said the ordeal of waiting for news on Andrew was taking its toll.

“We are simply on an edge in a way that words cannot fathom,” he said, adding that he was grateful for the best wishes sent to the family from Belturbet, Co Cavan, where Andrew went to school and to which he has regularly returned over the years.

Andrew was born in Chicago and went to school in Belturbet. Another brother, Nicholas, is a Professor of English Literature in Trinity College Dublin.

Andrew Grene had been attending a meeting with the Head of the UN Mission in Haiti, Hedi Annabi, when the magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck.

Mr Annabi’s body has since been recovered and it is believed that 37 members of the UN mission were killed in the earthquake.

The Grene family has posted a request for information on the Red Cross website, with people asked to contact his 22-year-old son, Patrick, or wife, Co Down woman Jennifer Grene. The Department of Foreign Affairs last night said Mr Grene was still missing.

Meanwhile, businessman Denis O’Brien has appealed for construction foremen to travel to Haiti in a bid to help the recovery effort.

Speaking on Morning Ireland, O’Brien, whose Digicel company employs around 900 people in Haiti and who has pledged almost €3.5m to the relief effort, said infrastructure, including government buildings, had been reduced to rubble.

He arrived in Haiti on Sunday and said the situation on the ground was “absolutely quite shocking” and that people were petrified to return to the remains of their homes to retrieve possessions in case the structures collapsed fully.

“If there are unemployed foremen in Ireland and they want to come over here, by God, their skills are needed today.

“There is nobody left untouched here.”

He said so far contact had been established with just 300 Digicel staff members.

Meanwhile, CBM Ireland, which is running a special appeal to respond to the crisis in Haiti, has said fuel shortage could be the next big issue to affect the people of the island.