Virtual Event Held To Mark National Missing Persons Day

To mark national Missing Persons Day, an intimate, in-person ceremony is usually held each year.

The Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee TD, will host an online commemorative ceremony to mark the ninth annual national Missing Persons Day.

National Missing Persons Day is an all-Ireland day of commemoration, providing an opportunity for family members and friends of missing persons to remember their loved ones and to appeal to the public for any information that might be of assistance to An Garda Síochána.

The sister of Trevor Deely says his disappearance has caused 21 years of trauma, and is renewing her family's appeals for information.

Naas man, Trevor was 21 when he vanished after attending a Christmas party in Dublin on December 8th, 2000.

His sister Michelle says his disappearance gets harder with each passing year:

Ahead of the Virtual Event Minister McEntee said: “While it saddens me greatly that another year has passed and we are not able to come together safely in person on this important day.

"I know that Missing Persons Day provides families and friends affected by the ambiguous loss of a loved one with comfort, hope and a sense of unity, no matter what the setting.

“I would like to encourage people who may have information about one of our missing people to come forward. Any information, even if it appears insignificant or irrelevant, has the potential to be important and valuable to both those investigating the disappearance of our missing persons, and the families and friends of missing persons.

“I also want to encourage close family relatives of missing people who have yet to do so to provide a DNA sample for uploading to our national DNA database.

"The collection and subsequent matching of DNA samples from this database represents a key turning point in the identification of human remains in Ireland and has provided much longed-for closure for an increasing number of families,”she said.

The ceremony features spoken contributions from affected families, in addition to speeches from the Minister, the Garda Commissioner, and a number of other state or voluntary organisations.

The Minister also outlined that from 2022 onwards, coroners will be asked to include details of any unidentified human remains reported to them in the preceding year, as part of a new statutory annual return.

The Minister for Justice said her Department will provide an ongoing annual update on any new cases to the Missing Persons Unit to enable Gardaí to follow up with the individual coroners.