Appeal to assist families of NY attack victims

A nationwide appeal has been established to help the families of police and firefighters killed in the September 11th attacks on New York.

The initiative, which will include a newspaper advertising campaign and a number of events in the run-up to Christmas, aims to raise £1 million, to be divided equally between the police and fire department benevolent funds. Anyone wishing to donate can do so to account number 39196813 at the Bank of Ireland, Sutton.

Announcing the appeal yesterday, the chairman of the fundraising group, Fine Gael TD Mr Michael Joe Cosgrave, said it was an attempt by those involved to "give something back" to a city which had offered so much to Ireland.

"We were in the pub one night watching a replay of the events, and we thought we should do something about it. New York has done a lot for us. It's nearly a sister city to Dublin. And especially at a time like this, it would be nice to give something in return."

Helping launch the appeal yesterday was Sgt Pete McCormack, a Donegal man now in his 11th year with the NYPD and based in the South Bronx.

In the wake of the World Trade Centre attacks, Sgt McCormack worked in his spare time on the search operation, first for survivors and then bodies. But now, as a trained detective, he is required to work two days of every five in the mammoth operation to sift the debris removed from Ground Zero to a landfill site on Staten Island.

"It's a 24-hour operation on an incredibly large site. We're still searching for the black boxes from the two aircraft, but we're looking for everything really. I wouldn't like to tell you some of the stuff we find."