by Louise Doyle
A RAPHOE man who has devoted the last 10 years of his life to running the world’s largest missing persons network hopes a new dance anthem awareness initiative will strike a cord.
Fintan Cullen aims to reunite missing children and adults with their loved ones.
Using photos or videos provided by gardaí, police, families and other missing person pages, Mr Cullen’s posts mainly cover the island of Ireland and the UK.
He also hosts Fintan’s Missing Person’s Talk Show, which broadcasts from his home every Saturday from 8 – 9pm.
It offers advice on what to do if a loved one has disappeared and provides a platform for families to talk about what may have happened to them.
In a bid to continue to keep the issue of missing persons in the spotlight, Fintan has turned his attention to the younger generation.
He has written, produced and is the vocalist on a dance anthem song aptly titled, ‘Never Stop Looking’.
The song was recorded at Finn Valley FM and will be released on August 8 and will be free to download from a number of platforms.
Globally someone goes missing every 10 seconds. In Ireland, approximately 16 people go missing in Ireland every day. The reasons for which, Fintan says, are myriad.
Speaking to the Donegal News, Fintan said it is so important to him to keep giving heartbroken families who are missing a loved one from their lives a voice.
“There are many reported cases of missing people everyday. With older people, it can be a case of them feeling neglected, while younger people may be experiencing mental health problems. The problem with Irish society is that we don’t talk about important things in the same way families in America or elsewhere in Europe do.
“When I started my show years ago people didn’t realise just how missing people affect their families, their communities. There is so much silence and heartbreak around missing people. It is so important for me that families of missing people have support. People don’t often understand the logistics involved in trying to trace missing people.
“What I wanted to do with this project was to aim it at younger people, those aged between 18 and 30 years. I decided to make the song a dance anthem to appeal to the younger generation because I think they are more susceptible to getting involved in causes. They have their own sort of language and they all help one another.”
Fintan said he believes there is a stigma around missing people, but said discussions around the issue have helped.
“Things have become more open but for families personally affected it can still be very difficult for them.”
He said families of loved ones who are missing find it very difficult to open up. But he said he has experienced some success.
“I have been contacted on three occasions in the last three years from people who have spotted a missing person. One call came from a person who saw a missing person on a boat. As an adult, he had the right to go missing but I wanted to get a message to his wife and children that he was alive. That man returned home for about three months but sadly he left again.”
‘Never Stop Looking’ will be available to download for free from August 8 on YouTube, Sound Cloud, Amazon Music and Apple Music.
See Fintan’s Missing Persons Network Ireland on Facebook for more information.
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