A former New York resident with close Sligo links is preparing to travel throughout Ireland on a unique charity fund and awareness raising effort.
He's Michael Burke, a volunteer rescue worker who assisted on the scene of the horrific 9/11 attack on the World Trade Centre's Twin Towers in Lower Manhattan, which occurred 19 years ago this September.
Michael Burke was a member of the Carpenters Union in New York and also president of the Sligo GAA Club in New York for over 15 years.
Now living in Castleisland, Co Kerry, his family roots are in Tubbercurry, in south Sligo.
On the trip he is now planning throughout the country, he aims to keep the horrific story of what happened 9/11 alive, particularly among younger people, as well as raising awareness and funds for charities.
He will have a special 9/11 GAA jersey for each county which has been designed and donated by Kieran Kennedy, managing director of O'Neill's in Strabane, Co Tyrone, where a 9/11 flag raising memorial will take place on September 11th.
The jerseys for each county can be signed by players and donated to a local charity in the counties.
Michael's trip from Kerry, where he now lives, will take him to the north of Ireland, into Donegal and Sligo, finishing in Charlestown, Co Mayo, his mother Angela Walsh's home place.
There he will make a presentation of a 9/11 jersey that he says will help raise funds for a new pitch and walkway in memory of the late Detective Garda Colm Horkan, who was a GAA stalwart.
Along the way, Michael himself will also be wearing a 9/11 jersey which he hopes will be signed by players in every county and which he will then donate to the Laura Lynn Children's Hospice.
He has been telling Ocean FM News what has motivated him to undertake this trip:
https://filedn.com/lglCaxamfnlV2gaMY6rU7tH/News%20Clips%202020/mikeburke06.mp3
