The number of Irish-born people missing or unaccounted for since the attack on the World Trade Centre in Manhattan on Tuesday is between 20 and 30, according to the Irish Voice newspaper which brought out a special edition yesterday. Other sources involved in tallying the missing put the figure at between 15 and 30. The Irish Consulate in New York is not releasing figures or names until relatives are certain that people have not been accounted for. In one case an Irish national thought to be a victim turned up at a conference in Montreal. Four Irish tourists are however thought to have been on the observation deck on top of one of the towers, which opened 52 minutes before the first plane hit, but this has not been confirmed.
Three of the missing are Irish construction workers: Kieran Gorman (35), Sean Canavan (38) and Martin Coughlan (53). Mr Coughlin, a carpenter from Co Tipperary, made a mobile phone call to say something terrible had happened and has not been heard from since. Mr Gorman called his wife to tell her he loved her. Mr Canavan rang his sister to say he was safe.
There are also fears for three other Irish members of a construction crew and for Patrick Currivan of Dublin. The list of missing also includes Ann Marie McHugh (35), who was working on the 84th floor, and two natives of Co Donegal, William Deane (35) and Damien Meehan, both of whom worked for an insurance firm on the 100th floor.
Two members of Irish-America Magazine's Top 50 Wall Street Irish honoured just this year in a ceremony atop the south tower are also missing. They are Joseph Berry, chairman and co-chief executive of the financial company of Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, which cannot account for 70 employees on the 89th floor, and Joseph Lenihan, vice-chairman.
Among the confirmed dead are Cork-born Ruth McCourt of Westford, Massachusetts, and her four-year-old daughter, Juliana Valentine, who were listed among the passengers on the second plane to hit the trade centre. A team of five officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs is to travel to New York to assist in arrangements as soon as air travel is restored.