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WITH ONLY TWO of the four crew members from Rescue 116 recovered so far, the search for missing winch operator Paul Ormsby (53) and winchman Ciarán Smith (38) has entered its fourth week.
Poor weather conditions have consistently hampered their efforts, but search teams were able to lift the wreckage of the helicopter on Sunday.
As the search goes on, the local community in nearby Eachléim have been helping to coordinate efforts to feed and support the large rescue efforts, while groups around the country have also shown their support.
While many have sent their own food parcels to Eachléim, a direct payment can be made by those who wish to contribute to the local support for the search efforts.
Stacks of food supplies can be found at the local co-op and efforts are ongoing from groups all over the country to send more.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie, community co-op chairman John Gallagher, said that they intend to keep doing that as long as is necessary.
“We’ve been going at it hammer and tongs,” he said. “There are meals being served here three times a day.”
Gallagher praised the response from the surrounding east Mayo area, with schools, GAA clubs and local businesses all pitching in to help.
Local farmers and fisherman have helped with the rescue efforts, and the searchers return to the co-op each day to recharge their batteries ahead of fresh attempts to find the missing crew members.
“Local shops Brogan’s Eurospar, Cuffe’s Centra and Healy’s Spar have all chipped in with food, and others from around the area,” Gallagher said.
The co-op chairman also cited examples of people from around the country helping their efforts.
Father Sean Nealon, from Ballinasloe, has come twice with two car boots full of food. Schools in Dublin and Meath have helped out too. We’ve received so much support.
Gallagher said that there will be no slowdown in their efforts until the remaining crew members are found.
We’re going to keep going at it as long as it takes for the families.
Yesterday, the sister of Ciarán Smith appealed for fisherman along the coast to assist in the search efforts for her brother and Paul Ormsby, who remain missing.
Orla Smith described the wait for their loved ones to be found as a “living nightmare for all of us”.
Smith and Ormsby were among the four crew members aboard the Rescue 116 Coast Guard helicopter that went down on its way to refuel at Blacksod lighthouse on 13 March as it was about to assist in a medical evacuation mission.
Captain Dara Fitzpatrick was recovered at sea soon after the helicopter went down, but died later in hospital. The body of pilot Mark Duffy was found in the wreckage of the helicopter last week.
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Bertie Ahern is iffy.
That would have been enough.
If gardai are so different. They shouldn’t be included in the LRA. They have wanted to be a stand alone. The government can’t keep saying they are the same as every other public service
Berty would have just got out his blankety blank cheque book and pen!
Bertie should be in jail end of.it just shows how much of a failed country ireland is when the man that caused the most severe economic collapse in the country is still getting his opinions published on media well done journal you keep out doing yourselves all the time.
Bertie had his day look at the mess of our country because of ff policy snakes is what they are.they should be stripped of their pensions not on here giving their irrelevant opinions.Bertie the dinosaur that sold his country down the tube with the help of his fg and liebour buddies.never forget about these three most corrupt partys this country has ever seen.gombeen politicians is what they are.
I didn’t read this article because I could care less about what Bertie Aherne thinks. He’s still robbing us by accepting his huge pension. You can bet he has a bank account for that!
Berty Ahearn is iffy in every way. He knows all about screwing up a country !
Pensions ( about 6) not pension
Here here!
Always be weary of a man who pronounces there as “dare” and three as”tree”
would he suggest the imf to sort it out shut up
He just can’t slip away into the sunset he has an opinion on everything.
We pay Bertie about eight times the average wage as a thank you for his years of making a hames of running the country. Is it too much to ask for him just to fukc off and stop bothering us?
Lol. Brilliant.
More BS from the this over pensioned spoofer
Why is this toerag popping up in the press allot lately.
Exactly this piece of corrupt sh*t shouldn’t be anywhere near the airwaves. That’s this yokes in RTE for ou, why would anyone pay those leeches a tv licence?
@PaulJ: I managed not to for years, but I was caught a couple of years ago and received a court summons where I was told Id be fined 1000s if I didn’t pay up.
I now pay the f**kers €13 a month for not ever tuning in to RTE, ever.
Irish president job nearing
I completely agree. This f***er has had his eye on the Park for years.
He wouldn’t have a hope. I know we’re pretty brain dead judging on who we continually elect but no way this lying conman would get elected president.
Typical Bertie speak
“I’m iffy”
“I’m not sure”
The man can never talk straight.
The man of the unfinished sentence.
“I don’t really think, you see the point is, sure look it, ”
He waffles and waffles and waffles without ever really saying anything.
I guess that’s how he survived in politics.
‘Sure look it’ is a phrase when used by Irish politicians makes my blood boil. It means ‘I don’t really mean what I say and sure, ye all know the craic wink wink’
Gas, Bertie would know all about “iffyness”,he’s been the master of it
No shocks there. All he ever done was chat out ten sides of his mouth
@Stephen Todd: Does that mean he spoke with a forked tongue??? lmao !!
Jesus wept . This gobsheen gangster back in the news
who actually cares about what this fat miserable old creep has to say abt the economy/industrial relations. lord knows he didnt do a great job himself
Why is something that the fool said even deemed newsworthy?
This is the guy who introduced bench marking of public servants against the private sector and blew most of the ‘boom’ monies on the public service wage bill, increasing it’s size by 20% and buying his way out of industrial relations problems, effectively permanently corrupting the whole system!!!
@winston smith: Thankfully no one’s buying their way out of industrial relations problems these days…
Emmet I hope that’s sarcasm because that’s what just happened with the Gardai.
Why is this failure given airtime?
The only thing I want to know about this Thicko is he no longer robs the state of the pension he does not deserve.
Either that or he died roaring….
It’s all smoke and daggers then along comes Bertie to upset the apple tart.
Trust RTE and that overpaid Woman Finucane to give this wretched creature airtime and for the Journal to give him oxygen. That creep Ahern should be kept our of sight
F#*K Bertie
How is he even allowed to comment!
Bertie you caused this iffy shiite, go back and earn your speach money.
Iffy Bertie ☺
Chuckle aloud ☺
Bertie Ahern Mind Your Own Business – You Helped Destroy Our Country and Have Put Our Country Back Years – Our Garda, Teachers, Doctors, Nurses, Health System, Housing and all of the Hard Working Men and Women plus all the countless most vulnerable people you brought to the brink collapse shame on you!
Why does this guttersnipe have a forum to speak his mind on any subject? His naked, taxidermied vessel should be on display in a junky museum somewhere.
The voice of reason is Bertie.
You left out the T
Why do they even give Bartholomew the air time anyway? His words aren’t even worth the airwaves they’re broadcast on…
The journal loves bertie. Slow news day , wait , we’ll stick in something about bertie. Job done .
Bertie Ahern is nothing short of a national disgrace and a prime example why Fianna Fail needs to be kept out of government as they alone, still won’t hold him accountable.
If even Bertie Ahern – the taoiseach whose capitulation to the trade unions on so many occasions ultimately led to the collapse of the public finances – is concerned about the concessions that the Government made to the Garda unions, then you know we are in trouble.
I’m iffy about that journalist!
Why is this douchebag even getting air time, he’ll be president before we know own it…..let him Rot In Piece
Iffy rhymes with “a fee” which Bertie likes! Why is this windbag still getting air-time?
That bo11ox again
Please please please go back in your cupboard and shut up.
Bent as an s hook,why give this rsehole airtime.
He’s been in the media a lot of late,asking to give an opinion.Is this the start of a campaign to get him back in the political arena?
This man should never be allowed comment on anything
Coming from the biggest crook of them all!
Bertie for Taoiseach
The King of iffy thinks there is something iffy. Nothing iffy about that.
Extraordinary deal? Anyone want to refute it or endorse it? From what I’m hearing it will be rejected and there will be far more trouble coming
Well would’t he be an expert on iffy
Iffy was his politics
He knows iffy the crook
Ahearn is lucky that the FBI aren’t in Ireland.unlike gardai,the FBI go after corrupt politicians
@Kevin Moylan: “— the FBI go after corrupt politicians —”
And yet they seem intent on shoehorning one of the most corrupt persons who ever ran for public office – the Orange Monster Trump – into the Oval Office.
Why is this thing allowed to have an opinion on anything he should be doing time in the joy.
Bertie himself is about as iffy as a three card trick man St Puck Fair.
What the f##k why would anybody care a damn what a dud like Ahern has to say on anything
“The Mahon Report found that Mr Ahern gave untrue evidence about the source of over £215,000 lodged in bank accounts connected to him.” Why is this liar given airtime by the national broadcaster?
Why is he allowed to comment on anything
Wonder if he was as “iffy” about paddy the plasterer’s monies or the sterling he had which he allegedly won on the horses??
Berty Ahern & iffy..three words that fit together perfectly
The gardai were forced into all this.They are different.they didn’t want all this exposure.
“Iffy”?
I’d have said “dodgy”.
But maybe he did win all that money on the nags.
Lol
Oh by the way tell that harris flute that apple ran away with that magic money tree.
Bertie is as bent as any politican currently in the Dail. Dennis O”Brien and Lowery should be still in Mountjoy with this parasite who told folks to ”Hang Themselves” for doubting the ”Celtic Tiger”.
Well these folks have ””Real Blood” on their hands now.
Re repossions via the Eviction Bill supported by most politicians of the main party’s.
FF//FG//Labour are only for big business via banks,vulture funds and no longer care for the working class// middle class ordinary citizens of our Emerald Isle.
Labour has been decimated in the last election and FG lost out big time due to the decimation of the working class.
The only reason treasonous FF gained seats was because of a pre-election promise to abolish Irish Water.
They are now unwilling to state where they stand now following commission started!
Are our politicians ignorant to the hundreds of thousands who oppose these unjust charges?
If so as the Labour party has been obliterated and FG cut down to size,, so too will any political party that ignores the people
Am I missing something here? The Gardai are a domestic law agency, surely it’s not their job ensure the ‘Security of the state’ wouldn’t that be the job of the military or a National Security agency?
Look get a hold on yourselves Bertie said he gave us the money when he had it,when he dident have it he could not give it.,don’t be like spoiled children now stamping your feet just because Bertie had not got the money to buy you an ice cream .!!!lol
Bertie Aherne is iffy. Stop it right there. That is all we know and that is all we need to know. Is there no other criminal with better command of the English language than he whose opinion on the Gardai or anything else you could solicit?
Guards aren’t any more or less important than any other front line services, but we have to use our common sense here. If we don’t give our coppers a decent wage, then they’re more vulnerable to the usual market forces of bribery, blackmail, etc. I don’t want to live in a society where the police are even more deferential to the wealthy than they are now.
Yea you can drive home after 10 pints so long as you can drop 50euro to the young guard who needs to pay his ESB bill before thursday to avoid disconnection.
The race to the bottom is over. The big boys have won.
U gotta love the teflon Taoiseach . Haha.
Was he in fagans half cut when he made that statement.
Why does anyone actually give a shit what Bertie Ahern thinks! He never gave a shit about anyone only himself! Given what happened in this country under his watch and corruption scandals his opinion is irrelevant!
I couldn’t believe when I heard him on RTE this morning. Marian had Pat Rabbit on the panel too. The electorate passed judgement on these politicians, so why is the state broadcaster still giving them a platform?
Who cares what that Muppett thinks???
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