Cathal O'Brien (left) and Kevin Ball (right). Crimecall / RTÉ One Crimecall / RTÉ One / RTÉ One

GARDAÍ ARE APPEALING for information of the whereabouts of two men who went missing from Cork city 24 years ago.

The missing persons case of Cathal O’Brien (23) and Kevin Ball (42) was later upgraded to murder. The two friends went missing in April, 1994.

Tonight on RTÉ’s Crimecall, Cathal’s father and sister appealed for any information about the whereabouts of his remains.

Cathal’s father Seamus described his son as thoughtful, and said that “he always put forward a logical and reasoned opinion”.

His sister said that he was “thoughtful and kind” and “seemed to empathise” with those who were less well off. She said that he “measured what he said” which brought a comfort to people who needed it.

He had just graduated from what is now Waterford Institute of Technology and had many friends “who were at Cork at the time, and that’s what brought him to Cork”, his father said.

Crimecall / RTÉ Crimecall / RTÉ / RTÉ

When asked did he ever manage to get over the loss or the pain of losing his son, Seamus said he didn’t.

“What I’ve been managing to do is to balance Cathal as a missing member of our family with all the children we have with us who bring us joy and who bring us consolation. Grandchildren and children are magic.”

Seamus said that recovering his son’s remains would give Cathal a “dignity and a decency of a proper conclusion to a short perhaps but a fine, lived life”.

Grains of sands of information that people might have – they might think it doesn’t matter or it’s too small to matter. Every grain of sand goes to make a brick, and bricks build.

Superintendent Michael Comyns said it was an “awful long time to be hoping and waiting for remains to be found”.

He said that in particular, they were appealing to people who were in the Mayfield area of Cork city around the time of the men’s disappearance.

“We’re hoping that because of the passage of time people will come forward with information so that we can progress our investigation and so that the remains of two missing people can be found.”