The families of Firefighters Brian Murray and Mark o'Shaughnessy would like to thank everybody who has offered support over the last year.

We would like to extend an invitation to anyone who wishes to show their respects for Mark and Brian to attend a memorial Mass on Saturday 27th September at 11am in Holy Redeemer Church Main Street Bray.

We would ask people at this time to remember also their colleagues who have worked hard in difficult circumstances over the last year to keep their communities safe.

All attendees are welcome to the Royal Hotel Bray afterwards for refreshments.

Independent.ie

By Stephen O'Farrell
Saturday September 20 2008

Stephen O'Farrell

AS the first anniversary of two firefighters killed in the line of duty approaches, relatives have warned that the lack of reforms to the system will lead to further tragedies.

Firefighters Brian Murray (46) and Mark O'Shaughnessy (26) died on September 26, 2007, when a roof collapsed on them during a blaze at a derelict building in Bray, Co Wicklow.

Mr Murray, who was a father of 15, was highly critical of the inadequacies of the part-time Bray fire service prior to the tragedy. He had even predicted that someone would lose their life before the end of the year.

The deaths of Mr Murray and Mr O'Shaughnessy sparked a public outcry and Wicklow County Council pledged to improve the fire service. But 12 months later, the Murray family's campaign for a full-time fire service in the region has failed to yield any results.

Mr Murray's eldest son - also named Brian -- said the sympathy his family received had not led to any reforms in the service.

"We don't want sympathy or people feeling sorry for us, we've moved beyond that now. We just want to get the right thing done," he told the Irish Independent.

Brian Jnr's uncle, Darren Murphy, who has been acting as a spokesman for the campaign, thanked the people of Bray for all their support over the year, but warned them to expect further tragedies.

"People in Bray should not sleep easy at night," he said. "The chances of a fire starting in your house might be very slim. But if it does, and you live in Bray, then you are in trouble."

Mr Murphy said the Bray Fire Service was still overstretched and that the knowledge required in order to fight fires in the safest manner was not available to the fighters.

"One big thing is familiarisation. They arrived at that building (on the day of the tragedy last year) and they knew nothing about it.

"They should have known, but if you're in Dublin Fire Brigade, or in the UK, you would know.

"It's a typical Irish attitude, they don't care until somebody dies, then there's uproar for a day or two and that's it, no change."

Mr Murphy said the full reality of the state of the services was hidden by a clever working of the law by the Department of the Environment.

He said that call vetting times -- the period when authorities determine whether a fire is serious enough to deploy fire fighters -- were not included in the station's response times. This leads to wholly inaccurate response times being recorded, he added.

Frustrated

Mr Murphy said the family had also been left totally frustrated by their attempts to get an independent inquiry.

He revealed that a meeting with councillors, TDs and unions last January had yielded a signed document calling for the inquiry. However, no action followed.

The Murray family will gather at the spot where Brian and Mark died on Friday week for a private service, while a memorial mass will be held the following day.

They are stressing that it is a day of commemoration and said it would not be used to drum up support for their campaign.

Brian Jnr (2 said one of the hardest parts about his dad's death was the fact that his younger siblings would never know him.

"It's different every day," he said. "Sometimes it's impossible to live with as well, just looking at pictures of him.

"To us he was the main man and anytime there was anything wrong that was the man you go to.

"Looking at some of the smaller kids, it would make you sick because he is gone for no reason. They will never know him.

"Sometimes the youngest lad, Cian (2), calls me daddy because I've the same name as my da."

Mr Murphy added: "People talk about 12 months' bereavement, but were facing into another 12 months. We are dealing with an injustice as well, not necessarily the deaths but the fact that there's no desire to find out what went wrong."

- Stephen O'Farrell

Every day in Every Country a child goes missing. This is fact
. We all know this, we hear about high profile cases and spare a moment of our time to consider the pain and anguish being suffered by the families and we move on with our own lives.

"Forever Searching", a group of volunteers, made a decision - no longer would we ignore the issue of missing children and no longer would we carry on living our lives without making an attempt to get these children seen.

We are asking you to do the same. Please take a few minutes out of your day and have a look at our site dedicated to missing children. Follow the link below:
(We understand many people are careful not to click on links so you may wish to type the address directly into your browser).
www.foreversearching.com
On our site you will find many missing children from around the world. All we are asking is that you take a few minutes to take a look at the missing children from your country or any other country.

Look into their eyes and ask yourself, if you can walk away without doing something to help raise awareness to them. Please help Forever Searching in achieving their aim, that no child should become just another statistic.



AMBER ALERT

The AMBER Alert Program, named for 9-year-old Amber Hagerman, is a voluntary partnership between law-enforcement agencies, broadcasters, and transportation agencies to activate an urgent bulletin in the most serious child-abduction cases. Broadcasters use the Emergency Alert System (EAS) to air a description of the abducted child and suspected abductor. This is the same concept used during severe weather emergencies. The goal of an AMBER Alert is to instantly galvanize the entire community to assist in the search for and safe recovery of the child.

How does the Alert system work?
Alerts are sent out via the Emergency Alert System (or Emergency Broadcast System, originally designed to disperse information after a nuclear attack) to law enforcement agencies and radio and television stations. The announcements are prefaced by a special "Abducted Child Statement" code, to differentiate them from tornado or flood warnings. Some states also use large traffic alert signs on their highways, especially when the suspect is believed to have access to a car.


Support

Gerry and Kate McCann are appealing For an Amber alert system to be put in place in Europe.

Forever Searching, Christine Kenny (Amy Fitzpatrick’s Aunt) along with Christine’s Husband Billy, her Daughters Suzanne and Martina, Maura Martin, Psychic Joe Power and Claudine Hope are
Backing the Mc Canns in their appeal to The European Parliament. We have set up a petition online should anyone wish to add their support
The address is

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/A...

If you would like to help us to get more signatures please email

Antoinette@foreversearching.com and we will forward you on a petition as soon as possible

Thank you