As she stood by Blacksod lighthouse in north Mayo on Sunday evening, having learned that another intensive search had failed to find her brother, Ciaran, and his Irish Coast Guard colleague Paul Ormsby of Rescue 116, Dr Orla Smith had a message.
“Sometimes ‘thank you’ sounds too small,” she said. But on this occasion, she continued, “it isn’t big enough...”
Several minutes before, a wreath of roses had been laid on the lighthouse helipad – a spray of white encircling three red flowers for the two missing winch team and co-pilot Capt Mark Duffy, and a single pink rose for their colleague Capt Dara Fitzpatrick.
As sun-tinted clouds tumbled down from Achill head over Blacksod Bay, exhausted divers, air crew, fishermen, RNLI lifeboat, local Irish Coast Guard and Civil Defence volunteers stood in momentary silence.
Tears welled up, lumps rose in throats, as Dr Smith paid tribute to the tireless efforts over almost six weeks since the Irish Coast Guard helicopter crashed off Blackrock island in the early hours of March 14th.
“I think there were 175 divers here in all this weekend from all over the country, along with Garda and Navy teams, supported by all the local fishermen, and we had the Army mountaineers and Garda on the island last week,” she said.
“So everything has been checked on that rock, nothing left unturned, and what’s most important is that everyone is back safe,” she said.
As Vera Cusack and Bernie Naughton of the Roscommon Solstice Choir laid down the wreath they had handcrafted, colleagues broke into Amazing Grace, followed by a moving rendition of Sarah McLachlan's In the Arms of an Angel by Eimear Reynolds.
John Kearney of West Cork Underwater Search and Rescue, one of the co-ordinators with the Irish Underwater Council of the weekend diving, paid tribute to the “phenomenal effort”. “This is one of the biggest and best operations I have seen in 30 years,” he said.
Guide lines
Up to 35 local fishing boats and small vessels had been offered as platforms, and local fishermen had been laying guide lines for the divers from early morning, Mr Kearney said.
He said the divers were working in depths of up to 35m, focusing on rocks, crevices and gullies.
“The swells and currents around this island are well known, and to have weak tides and good weather is very rare – so these are once-a-year conditions.”
Several hours after the last dive team came ashore, members of the Smith family – Ciaran’s wife, Martina, and three daughters – joined siblings of Paul Ormsby and Niamh Fitzpatrick, sister of the late Capt Fitzpatrick, and her cousin Sarah Duggan at a concert by the solstice choir in St Brendan’s Church, Tirraun.
“We hope to provide some comfort and solace to the families... and some hope and inspiration for the unsung heroes who have been providing so much time and effort over the past six weeks,” one of the choir’s founders, Marie Gillooly, said beforehand.
Review
Supt Tony Healy of Belmullet Garda station said the search for the missing men would continue. “We will be reviewing everything we have done so far to date so see if there are other areas that need to be explored,” he said. “This has been an extraordinary multi-agency and community effort so far.”
As lighthouse keeper Vincent Sweeney – who had first raised the alarm about Rescue 116, with his son Simon and nephew Fergus – locked up the building’s gates, local doctor and Fianna Fáil senator Keith Swanick was philosophical.
He was carrying his baby daughter, Rosa Pearl, who was born just a week before the crash. The Erris community had a stoicism that would carry them, and the families, through this ordeal, he said.
He produced a card he had received in the post from Ms Sheila Doherty, a 92-year-old resident of Castlerea, Co Roscommon, who he had recently treated.
Ms Doherty had sent a cash contribution to the Rescue 116 search effort.
“Doesn’t that just say everything about how the country is feeling?” Dr Swanick said.
