Concerns are growing for several Irish people missing since the attack on the World Trade Centre in New York on Tuesday, and scores of Irish-Americans are feared to have been killed in the rescue attempt which took the lives of over 200 New York firemen.
The Irish consulate in mid-town Manhattan has been inundated with calls from relatives looking for Irish people visiting or working in the World Trade Centre.
"We have had hundreds of calls and we are down to hard cases of people we are concerned about, said press officer Mr Eamonn McKee. "We're braced for it to get a lot worse. We fear that as the casualty figure mounts that there will be more Irish people involved."
However, the consulate was reluctant to give a definite figure because the identity of many casualties in hospitals as far away as Connecticut have yet to be established.
Ms Ruth McCourt, a Cork woman living in Connecticut and her four-year-old daughter, Juliana, were on one of the two planes which smashed into the towers of the Trade Centre, killing all 266 people aboard. Two nephews of Fine Gael TD Mr Gerry Reynolds whom he was to meet in New York for lunch on Tuesday are missing.
The Irish consulate staff has been augmented by diplomats from the Irish Permanent Representation at the United Nations to cope with the crisis and since Tuesday the Consulate has been operating on a 24-hour basis.
A team of Irish officials will fly out after air traffic is restored to help to deal with removal of remains, and to provide arrangements for bereaved relatives, Mr McKee said.
"Six people we know haven't yet been accounted for," he said, while declining to reveal if they were working in the World Trade Centre or visiting. Inquiries about missing persons were being relayed to the special New York Police Department emergency centre. "If we have a specific name, we can call the seven hospitals".
Many young Irish have found work in recent years in Wall Street companies with Irish connections such as Cantor Fitzgerald whose offices in No 1 Tower took a direct hit from the hijacked plane.
The Irish-American community in New York is bracing itself for the worst possible news as the fire brigades are traditionally manned by men and women of Irish origin, many of whom make up complete brigades. There are several Emerald Society Bands made up of New York firemen.
Reports from the scene are full of firemen with Irish names. Mr William Meehan, the first deputy fire commissioner, died along with one of the department's Roman Catholic chaplains, Mychal Judge.
Some 33 officers in the NYPD are unaccounted for and are also likely to include Irish-Americans.
One of the first fireman to arrive on the scene was Mr Edward Fahey, who said he had to dodge bodies falling from the upper storeys of the skyscrapers.
Mr Robert Byrne from a fire company on Houston Street was on the 30th floor when the second plane hit. "We were trying to evacuate civilians," he said. "The whole building was shaking. We feared it would collapse and the chief said to get the hell out of there." Another Irish-American fireman, Mr Mike Fitzpatrick was with seven other firefighters and was extremely lucky to escape from the lobby of the first building to collapse, where he and seven other firefighters were trying to rescue a trapped colleague.
The death of three firemen in a blaze in Woodside, New York earlier this year led to a massive outpouring of grief in the Irish-American community to which they belonged.
The painstaking work of identifying the fatalities is hampered by the fact that most are buried in rubble. "They have been anonymous. Now they are going to have faces and names."