Public donations to appeals for victims of the Asian tsunami may reach €40 million after an unprecedented response to last weekend's nationwide fundraising drive, write Patsy McGarry and Clifford Coonan
Six of the main relief agencies have collected €20.5 million - but this does not include proceeds from weekend collections, which were described by aid agencies yesterday as overwhelming and far exceeding any other emergency appeal.
Many organisations are still collecting money and more events are due to be held next weekend. If the final tally reaches or exceeds the €40 million mark, the public response will be among the most generous in the developed world.
In four countries (Germany, the US, Britain and the Netherlands) private donations have topped €100 million. If donations here top €40 million, it would put Ireland in a similar bracket to Norway (€46 million) and Canada (€58 million). The Government has already donated €10 million, but may increase that.
Mr Seán Farrell, who co-ordinates appeals for Trócaire, the Irish Catholic Church's development agency, said last weekend's collections alone could be near €10 million. The amount raised at weekend collections at Masses in Catholic churches may be double the €4.96 million collected last August for the crisis in the Darfur region of western Sudan. Mr Farrell quoted a Galway priest, who said collections there could be four times as high as they were for Darfur. The response had been "absolutely overwhelming", he said. Trócaire has already collected €2.8 million.
A spokeswoman for Concern, which has collected €3.5 million in two weeks, said the response to the appeal had been "amazing". Goal has received donations totalling €3 million, not including the money collected at GAA matches over the weekend. In Newbridge alone, €14,700 was raised at the Meath-Kildare match, while €100,000 was raised at the Leopardstown races.
The Irish Red Cross has raised "almost €10 million", a spokeswoman said. UNICEF has received €1.4 million, which will increase when collections on Aer Lingus flights are counted. A spokesman for Oxfam said it had collected €755,000 and would be sharing the takings from the Munster rugby match at Thomond Park last Saturday with Goal. A Church of Ireland spokesman said responses to its Bishops' Appeal Fund had been "more than generous".
The Department of Foreign Affairs would not comment last night on reports that relatives of Mr Conor Keightley have been told his body may have been identified by Thai authorities. The Tyrone man last contacted his family on Christmas Day when he sent them a picture of himself on a beach on the holiday island of Phi Phi.
A spokeswoman for the family last night said they would not be making any comment. Four family members have travelled to the island. Following a meeting with the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Ahern, they were invited to meet the Irish Ambassador, Mr Dan Mulhall. The family members are due back in the North tomorrow. Formal identification of a body would depend on dental records and DNA samples.
Speaking in Thailand yesterday, the Minister said: "They know that the issue of identification should be left to the experts but the visit has given them closure to a certain extent."
Speaking yesterday the Garda Commissoner Mr Noel Conroy suggested that the body of an Irish person was close to being identified. "At this stage there is, in particular, one family awaiting confirmation of identification within a matter of hours."