A DUBLIN WOMAN has told of her pride at seeing her terminally ill husband become an honorary member of the New York Fire Department.
Dublin firefighter Ian McCormack was honoured at a ceremony in the FDNY headquarters in Brooklyn last week.
After he was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer two years ago, his colleagues in the Dublin Fire Brigade began a fundraising campaign to help support his family.
Part of the money raised allowed Ian to fulfill his lifelong dream of visiting New York, where he and his wife, Gemma, were hosted by the FNDY’s Emerald Society.
The Irish-American organisation organised their itinerary, which included a visit to the 9/11 memorial site, a New York Giants game and a sightseeing cruise on board an FDNY fireboat.
And the couple was picked up and dropped off every day in a fire department van that had been installed with a ramp to accommodate Ian’s wheelchair.
‘It restores your faith in humanity’
Gemma, who has three children with Ian, said they always dreamed of visiting New York, but that “life, the house, the mortgage and work” had put any big holidays on hold before this month’s trip.
“We only realised how much work had gone into it when we arrived in New York,” she told TheJournal.ie.
It restores your faith in humanity. These people weren’t related to us in any way and yet they made everything so special.
From the day we arrived to the day we left, we relied on people we had never met before.
Emerald Society member Eddie Boles, who helped to coordinate the visit, said the FDNY was honoured to welcome Ian into its ranks.
“It was a very emotional occasion,” said Eddie, who was first contacted about the trip by former Dublin fireman Tadhg Fallon.
Being a New York firefighter is something that we hold very dearly – it’s more of a vocation than a job.
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