Dublin school gives aid to NYC’s heroes

By Ray O’Hanlon

A Dublin high school has reached out to the families of fallen police and firefighters.

The students of Blackrock College and its primary school, Willow Park, sold candles last Christmas in an effort to raise money for the families of firefighters and police officers who were killed on Sept. 11.

The money collected, which came to euro 10,000, was presented last weekend in New York to Silver Shield, the charitable foundation that provides educational assistance to the families of fallen firefighters and police officers in the tri-state area.

The presentation took place at the Blackrock College USA reunion dinner held at the New York Athletic Club in Manhattan last Saturday night.

The guest of honor and main speaker at the event was former New York Gov. Hugh Carey.

The check for Silver Shield was accepted on behalf of the foundation by its director of operations, Martin Duffy.

Silver Shield was founded 20 years ago by George Steinbrenner, owner of the Yankees.

The foundation’s remit originally covered firefighters and police officers in New York City, but it now additionally provides educational scholarship aid to the families of fallen Port Authority Police, State Troopers in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, and police officers working in a fifty mile radius of Manhattan.

The Blackrock College check was presented by Jim Murphy, president of the school’s alumni association, the Blackrock College Union, to Duffy and NYPD officers Patrick Gavigan and Colm Dawson, both of the midtown north precinct in Manhattan. Officer Dawson is a native of Belfast.

Blackrock College is one of five secondary schools in Ireland founded and run by the Holy Ghost Fathers, originally a French order of priests that began teaching in Ireland in the years after the Great Famine.