If goodwill alone were sufficient, Robert Holohan (11) would have been found in an instant yesterday, such was the outpouring of sympathy that prompted up to 1,200 people to comb the east Cork countryside.
When Garda Supt Liam Hayes appealed on Wednesday for help with the search, little did he realise his request would be heard not alone in Midleton and east Cork but in places as far away as Dublin and Mayo.
From early yesterday volunteers flocked to the search headquarters at East Cork Golf Club, north of Midleton, leading to traffic congestion on over two miles of country roads.
Most were local but not all. Denis Cronin had just finished a night shift as a prison officer at Cork Prison when he joined other anglers from around the county who know Robert's father, Mark, and wanted to help.
"A few of us from Macroom Anglers and a few of the Kanturk lads have come down - we all know Robert's father, Mark, from the fishing so we wanted to help out. We spent the morning searching down from the weighbridge on the Carrigtwohill Road to the sea.
Soup, sandwiches, sausages, chips and bottles of water donated by the people and businesses of Midleton were carried to the golf club as hungry searchers returned to base before starting off again.
Former Cork hurlers Kevin Hennessy from Midleton and Mark Landers from Killeagh joined the search. Kevin took time off from his job with the Revenue Commissioners and Mark took the day off from Permanent TSB.
Mark said: "I'd know the family from coming into us in the bank. It's only since Wednesday evening that people began to realise the seriousness of the situation but it's the only thing people are talking about in Midleton today. The whole place is out."
Even politicians took part. Local Minister of State Mr Michael Ahern had been searching around Sandyhill while Fine Gael's Mr David Stanton, whose two sons know Robert from Midleton CBS, had also been out searching.
It was ex-Army Ranger Gene O'Sullivan, from Castlemartyr, who best summed up the motivation behind such the large mobilisation of people.
"I've an 11-year-old girl," he said. "And she once went missing on me for 20 minutes in town and everything went through my head. I know exactly what those people are going through. That's why I'm here to do what I can to help. It's as simple as that."
