‘Amber’ is reality for us, says father of missing man

The father of a Limerick man who has been missing for over 14 years said the RTÉ TV drama, Amber, depicted the day-to-day nightmare reality for countless families who still live in hope a loved one will be found.

Bob Shanahan, a retired bank manager, said: “This is the way it is for so many people, and if some people feel pain at the way the Amber series finished, this is the way it is and the reality for families like ours.”

His son, Aengus “Gussie” Shanahan, was last seen near Limerick City centre at 11.30pm on the night of Feb 2, 2000.

Gussie, aged 20, was picked up on CCTV as he left Coopers Bar (now Eric’s bar) in Joseph St. He is believed to have, a short time later, tried and failed to get into a nearby house party. Huge searches were carried out in the city and along the river Shannon.

Numerous appeals have been made by his father and his mother Nancy.

Mr Shanahan said their lives were neither on red nor green — but on amber.

“And that is the way it is for people like us. It does become an obsession and takes over your life and it plays on your mind the whole time when you have no closure.”

Speaking to Limerick Live 95 presenter, Joe Nash yesterday morning, Mr Shanahan defended the concluding episode of Amber.

“This is the reality for so many families. There has been no happy ending and the nightmare continues for us and countless other families. It is called Amber and that is where a lot of people are on, not knowing, one way or the other,” he said.

“If there wasn’t such a dramatic ending, people might have accepted it more, but the ending left a vacuum.

“Going back to our own situation we are still on amber. We still don’t know what happened our son. We have gone through the whole lot.

“We have visited psychics all over the country and we would get a lead and go down this road and that road and told Gussie might be here and he might be there. He might be in the river. When you hear there was a body found in the river, you are hoping that you would have closure.”

He said this has been a particularly difficult week as Thursday is Gussie’s birthday.

“You are just hoping there will be a break somewhere. Everybody handles it differently, and some people can’t handle it at all. For me and Nancy the wait goes on and we just hope that before we die, there will be closure.”

-A new missing person number for Gussie Shanahan has been set up on 086 8956917.