February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Ray O’Hanlon
The number of confirmed Irish-born dead in the World Trade Center attack remains at five this week.
But officials at the Irish Consulate in Manhattan say that they are prepared for an upwardly revised number of missing first-generation Irish Americans.
That figure peaked at 17 last week and was in addition to five named as Irish-born dead and five more Irish-born feared lost.
A consular spokesman told the Echo that it was expected that the figure for first-generation Irish-American missing could grow in the coming days.
The total number of all generation Irish-American dead in the disaster likely reaches into the hundreds.
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Meanwhile, the number of missing members of the Carpenters Union local 608 had risen to 18 this week. An earlier figure of 16 had been widely reported.
Local 608’s membership is heavily Irish and Irish American and union officials were working this week to set up a fund to help the families of those lost.
A memorial Mass for one missing 608 member, 39-year-old Sean Canavan of Valley Stream Long Island and Bay Ridge in Brooklyn was held over the weekend. Canavan’s remains have not yet been recovered from the wreckage of the world Trade Center.
Meanwhile, Irish Consulate spokesman Eamonn McKee said that there has been no evidence at this point that any undocumented Irish immigrants had been caught up in the WTC disaster.
At the same time, he said that any information on possible undocumented missing would be “chased up.”
No further evidence has been uncovered in the past few days pointing to the existence of four Cavan workers reportedly hospitalized after the WTC collapse.
Efforts to find any such individuals by various agencies have proved unfruitful.