February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Connor Keightley’s body was positively identified in Thailand early Tuesday, after his sisters had been searching the area’s morgues and hospitals with help from Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern.
Keightley, a 31-year old from Cookstown, Co. Tyrone, was on holiday in the Krabi area of Thailand when the tsunamis struck. His body was identified from DNA samples of the missing that had been brought to Thailand last week. Two Irish people, Lucy Coyle and Michael Murphy, remain on the government’s “high-risk” list and have yet to be found.
The Keightley family released a statement thanking those who assisted them in their search. “We know now that Connor was and now is in paradise,” it read.
Ahern also released a statement, on behalf of his department, extending condolences to the Keightleys.
Having worked with Keightley’s sisters Michelle McCaughey and Dorina Duffin in recent days, Ahern said, “I was moved by the level of courage and determination they have shown during this most difficult time”.
McCaughey and Duffin had traveled from Tyrone to Thailand last week and, in a show of solidarity, a group of Duffin’s friends in the Philadelphia area are putting together an impromptu fundraiser to help her and her family with their expenses. It will be held Saturday at Tir Na Nog in the city’s Rittenhouse Square district.
Similar tributes and efforts are springing up throughout Ireland as well as the U.S.
Ireland’s BizWorld magazine is reporting that donations from the Irish public to various tsunami disaster funds could reach