THE search for a
missing doctor off the coast of Inishowen enters a
crucial phase this week. Dr Deirdre
Donnelly-O'Flaherty disappeared at Kinnego Bay nine
days ago and Greencastle Coast Guard has led a
tireless search for her every day since. Dogs and
their handlers from the Search and Rescue Dogs
Association (SARDA) in Newcastle, Co Down, joined
the search on Saturday while scores of people from
Inishowen, Strabane, Derry and further afield braved
icy conditions to comb the shoreline from Kinnego
Bay to Tremone and Culdaff. Mulroy Coast Guard also
joined their Greencastle colleagues while a further
60 people trawled the windswept shoreline on Sunday.
Local divers and individual members of the North
West Mountaineering Club also travelled to take part
in the operation.
Greencastle Coast Guard officer-in-charge Charles
Cavanagh said his team was hoping for some
resolution to the tragedy this week.
"Weather conditions turned very bad over the weekend
but on Saturday, along with Coast Guard personnel,
we had around 100 people out on the search including
family members and friends.
"The SARDA dog team helped us to search large areas
of undergrowth around Kinnego Bay."
As more and more people turned up on Saturday to
help, Greencastle Coast Guard organised them into
groups of between three and six and matched them to
a Coast Guard team leader.
Some members of the public had to turn back because
they were ill-equipped for either the weather or the
terrain. "People are very well meaning and we
appreciate all their help but we also have to think
of everyone's safety especially in such bad
weather," added Mr Cavanagh.
He said the intensity of the operation would
continue this week while the search and rescue
helicopter may also return, weather permitting. Dr
Donnelly-O'Flaherty, a mother in her early 40s who
is married to a Moville-born GP, went missing on the
morning of Sunday, January 11. The alarm was raised
when a passer-by noticed her BMW 4x4 on the beach
with the keys still in the ignition. |
