Missing? Who Cares?

national | miscellaneous | opinion/analysis Monday July 24, 2006 16:59 by Tom Brown missingpeople at dublin dot ie http://missingpeopleireland.blogspot.com/

Demand a helpline now!

The issue of missing people affects everyone in Irish Society. It can strike any family at any time, rich, poor, men, women, children, people of all races and creed, all ages, farmers, townspeople, no-one is immune from it. It’s only when someone belonging to you actually goes missing that makes you aware of how much a properly funded missing Persons Help line is needed. By then unfortunately it is too late…

Ellen Coss Brown

I want to give some reasons why I believe that a properly funded help line is essential and why it must never again close down due to a lack of funding. I personally believe that the population of Ireland is not big enough to run a well-run help line solely on Charity. As there are already so many people with equally good causes, depending on charity and peoples generosity already.

The issue of missing people affects everyone in Irish Society. It can strike any family at any time, rich, poor, men, women, children, people of all races and creed, all ages, farmers, townspeople, no-one is immune from it. It’s only when someone belonging to you actually goes missing that makes you aware of how much a properly funded missing Persons Help line is needed. By then unfortunately it is too late…

Here is a brief description of how I was let down by not having a properly funded helpline available to me at the time that my sister Ellen first went missing. When I found out that Ellen’s case would appear on RTEs Crimeline, I called into the Irish Missing Persons Helpline Office, which was in operation at the time. It was a registered charity, it had a www.callhome.ie website, a free telephone number and a fax number. I asked them if I could put their freephone number on the missing persons posters of my sister Ellen that I was going to have made. They said yes that would be no problem, so I proceeded to make thousands of posters of Ellen with their freephone number on each of them. I might add that that the only way that I could get these posters done was through the kindness of friends who were able to do it on a once of basis for me, as I was basically penniless at the time. I spent the next three days and nights putting up Ellen’s posters; I covered almost the whole of Dublin with her posters.

The day after the crimeline programme was broadcast I waited by the phone expecting to hear news of possible sightings of Ellen. I eventually called the Missing Persons helpline, it was engaged all day. It was the same story for the next two days, so I called into their office, but it was no longer there. I was told that their phones had been made redundant and would be like that for a week or two. As it happened the Irish Missing Persons helpline was never heard of again. I believe because of a lack of funding so all my efforts to find Ellen through the posters were to no avail.

I tried to write my own phone number on as many of the posters that I could find. The new poster that I had prepared also had my personal number on them. As you can imagine the amount of calls I started getting were endless. They tended to come in at all hours of the night. I had to put up with so many sick/hoax calls that I almost lost my mind. I began then to campaign for a properly funded helpline; so as no one else would have to endure what I went through. The lack of progress and the frustration I went through played a big part in my Nervous Breakdown.

Due to my little efforts in writing to T.Ds and the media along with all the other efforts of those families missing the helpline. That has even gone now due to the Minister of Justice or his department withdrawing funding for it. As a result the only help available to me and other relatives of missing people her is the UK National Missing Persons helpline. Although I am very grateful for their help I believe it is an absolute disgrace to all Irish people that we have none of our own.

Of late I have been lucky in that some friends have been able to help me send faxes and emails, which I have found a great help, but others are not as lucky as me. I find it no bother for me to walk around Dublin putting up posters, but a lot of the relatives of people who go missing would not be as fortunate as me. In fact older people would be at loss to make good quality missing posters and putting them up would be a big ordeal, not to mention the risk of heart failure by having to listen to some of the disgusting calls they would inevitably receive when they give out their own phone number. A lot of people including myself, I might add are not able to make use of Internet cafes and the like. In reality a lot of people would not have access to websites, sending emails etc. Also with a growing number of people new to the country now living in Ireland a missing Persons Helpline would be invaluable to them too, should one of their relatives go missing. Maybe in time the helpline would employ interpreters

I fully accept that my proposals may seem outlandish and may well cost a lot of money but I believe the mistake I made the last time was to settle for too little. I’m not asking for the best helpline in the world (but then again why not?) surely this Celtic Tiger Economy is capable of being the best at anything they choose to be. The Minister of Justice is well aware of how important a missing persons helpline is to the relatives and friends of those missing. Yet he totally refused to keep it open, as I said before the last time I campaigned for a state funded helpline, the efforts small and all as they were, helped to push me over the edge. As I write I am on the verge of another breakdown, physically, mentally and spiritually, I am drained. Please for Gods sake put pressure on the Government and the opposition parties to fund a properly run helpline, a permanent one this time.

I’m begging anyone who can help to restore the Missing Persons helpline and to do so right now. Every delay may put someone’s life at risk. As I write my sister Ellen is just over six years missing. I accept that I failed her and I make no excuses for that fact, but as pathetic as my efforts were to find her I actually did the best I could. I’m not saying that had there been a properly funded helpline she would have been found, but it would have made my life less of a nightmare than it is at present.

Please don’t let me fail the next person who goes missing.

DEMAND A HELPLINE NOW!

Sign the Online Petition@ http://www.petitiononline.com/missing1/petition.html