On the ground with Ireland's only cadaver dogs
Sarda IN is a voluntary group in Northern Ireland that provides dogs for search and rescue, as well as for cadaver searches across Ireland. Video: Alan Betson
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Irish Times
8 hours ago
- Irish Times
Search and rescue dogs: ‘They could be a person's last hope of survival'
Davy Fraser is explaining why Search and Rescue Dog Association Ireland North (Sarda IN) do what they do – 'You see a family standing wondering what's going on ... and if you can do something to help' – when his phone rings. The pop song Who Let the Dogs Out? echoes across the yard at Tollymore National Outdoor Centre near Newcastle, Co Down. This is where Sarda IN is based. 'That's a call out,' his colleague, Trevor Hartley, says. Hartley's phone begins ringing too, then another, then another, until a chorus of ringtones echoes around the forest that surrounds the centre. READ MORE It is the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) asking for Sarda IN's help to find a missing person. Within minutes, the handlers – and their dogs – are in their vehicles and have taken to the road, blue lights flashing. The only registered voluntary search dog team in Northern Ireland, Sarda IN is part of the North's official search and rescue effort and is tasked by the PSNI, fire service , mountain rescue and gardaí to find and rescue people missing on both sides of the Border. In its lifetime – the charity was founded in 1978 – its dogs and handlers, all volunteers, have carried out 3,000 search missions, and last year dealt with 32 call-outs. These are specialist dogs, explains training officer Rafe O'Connor. In addition to six mountain rescue dogs, they have four urban search and rescue dogs that work for the fire service and are part of the international search team that are dispatched to earthquakes abroad. There are four trailing dogs that are 'scene-specific', says O'Connor. Cadaver dog Rosie waiting for a turn during a training session at a quarry. Photograph: Alan Betson 'So, for example, if an elderly person has gone missing, they can find them up to 24 hours [afterwards by] following a specific scent trail,' he says. 'We have four cadaver specialist search dogs, which is for deceased humans – unfortunately, but that's sometimes needed.' The work of the cadaver dogs has been cast into the spotlight after it emerged following the recent sentencing of Richard Satchwell for the 2017 murder of his wife Tina Satchwell in their Youghal, Co Cork home that the State does not have its own such dog. On Friday gardaí investigating the murder of Annie McCarrick , who went missing in Dublin more than 32 years ago, brought in a cadaver dog to search a house in Clondalkin, west Dublin, that had been sealed off, though it was not one of the dogs from Sarda IN. Nelly, a cadaver dog, sits and waits during search training. Photograph: Alan Betson Following the Satchwell case, Sarda NI has written to Garda Commissioner Drew Harris 'reminding him of the assets we have and that we're more than willing' to assist, says O'Connor. A potential link with the fire service in the Republic is also being explored. Donna Harper knows first-hand the difference a cadaver dog can make. Sarda IN's dogs were deployed to Creeslough, Co Donegal, to search for victims and survivors in the rubble of the suspected gas explosion that killed 10 people in 2022. She waited almost 24 hours for her 14-year-old daughter Leona – the last to be found – to be recovered. 'Without a doubt, we would have been waiting a lot longer if it hadn't been for the dogs,' she says. 'There were a few dogs on site ... they actually went and they sniffed out the area and then indicated to the handlers, who then indicated to the emergency services, where Leona was, and that's how Leona was found. 'It really was an emotional scene – it was incredible to watch them work, and to see what the dogs and their handlers were able to do.' Harper and her family are still in touch with the dogs and handlers who found her daughter, and fundraise for the charity. The State, she says, must either invest in its own dog or fund the work of Sarda IN. 'The Government did say they would help in any way they could, when the explosion happened, so there's no better chance now for them to stand up and help,' she says. 'As a mother, I'm asking them to help now and fund the dogs.' Dr Neil Powell, president and founding member of Sarda IN, with Nelly, a cadaver dog. Photograph: Alan Betson In Co Down, at Sarda IN's base, the team has returned. Dogs and handlers that had been called out were stood down after police identified a location for the missing person. Instead, they return to the planned training exercise. Human blood and bone – the charity has a licence to use small amounts of archaeological remains – has been hidden in a small container inside a shed and beneath a rock. First up is Fraser's dog Rosie, a Labrador-hound mix who was originally a rescue dog. She bounds off and heads straight for the shed; when she finds the scent, she begins to bark loudly, stopping only when she gets her reward – a ball to play with. Next is Sarda IN founder Neil Powell's dog, Nelly, a springer spaniel who has plenty of experience. 'She'll be very quick,' he says. Once released from her lead, Nelly shoots off. 'See that – boom,' says O'Connor. 'That was about five seconds. She's a rocket.' Nelly sits by her find, looking very proud of herself. 'She's saying: 'Give me my toy,'' says Fraser. In the Satchwell case, it was more than six years after Tina's disappearance that a cadaver dog was brought in to assist with the search. The 45-year-old's body was found buried underneath the house in October 2023, more than six years after her disappearance. A garda searching a property with the assistance of a specialist cadaver dog. Photograph: Damien Eagers/ PA Wire The house was searched around the time of her disappearance in 2017 but a cadaver dog was not used. When a dog was deployed during the 2023 search, it focused on the area under the sittingroom stairs, from where human remains were subsequently recovered. [ How was Tina Satchwell left in a makeshift grave under the stairs for more than six years? Opens in new window ] O'Connor is in no doubt that had a dog been used in 2017, Ms Satchwell would have been found. 'If you imagine you've buried a body in the house; what's out there,' he says, gesturing towards the training ground where Nelly is now playing with her ball, 'is a small piece of blood, it's probably 20ml, and it's a tiny piece of bone, but if you've buried a body, I can guarantee within 10m of it the dog will be showing interest in that area'. Would it be 'preferable', as Minister for Justice Jim O'Callaghan said following Satchwell's conviction, for gardaí to have a dog? 'We don't get involved in operational decisions that's entirely up to a police force,' says O'Connor. But he points out: 'Having one would be lacking in resilience ... you would actually need multiple. We always use two dogs for any operation, one to back up the other.' Today, those dogs and their handlers have a global reputation. In the containers that serve as the charity's headquarters, their gear is always packed and ready, so they can be deployed to an earthquake or a disaster zone at a moment's notice. Dr Neil Powell in a training session with Nelly, a cadaver dog. Photograph: Alan Betson O'Connor points out a photograph of 'the famous Pepper'. 'He was Neil's dog, he was at Lockerbie with him, and that's his original jacket,' he says, referring to the 1988 bomb attack on a Pan Am flight in December 1988 that killed 270 people, including 11 residents of the Scottish town. The best moments are when someone is found alive. In a disused quarry overlooking Newcastle, O'Connor's border collie, Floss – or 'Super Search Dog Floss' as he calls her – shoots off towards the pile of blocks, which simulate a collapsed building. Within about 20 seconds, she has found him. 'The big find Floss got was Carol Grey in 2019 ... which won her Superdog Hero of the Year in 2022,' says O'Connor. 'This lady had been missing from the Ulster Hospital for four days. That's what it's all about for us. 'Those wee dogs there could be a person's last hope of survival,' says Hartley. 'It's amazing to watch what they can do.'
Irish Times
8 hours ago
- Irish Times
On the ground with Ireland's only cadaver dogs
Sarda IN is a voluntary group in Northern Ireland that provides dogs for search and rescue, as well as for cadaver searches across Ireland. Video: Alan Betson
Irish Times
9 hours ago
- Irish Times
The Gaelic philosopher who wrote ‘one of the most influential books of our time'
There are formative cultural experiences in all our lives. I'll never forget hearing The Smiths for the first time, watching The Breakfast Club, and reading Alasdair MacIntyre's After Virtue. Alasdair who, I hear you say? For fans of the Scottish philosopher, who died last month aged 96, his barnstorming book on the future of western thought felt like an intellectual coming-of-age. 'We have – very largely, if not entirely – lost our comprehension, both theoretical and practical, of morality,' he wrote. READ MORE It is not just that we are trapped in seemingly irreconcilable arguments about what's right and wrong. It's that we have lost touch with a shared language that can make reconciliation possible. So MacIntyre proclaimed in his book, first published in 1981, although that short precis of After Virtue doesn't nearly do it justice. The British writer Kenan Malik describes After Virtue as a 'brilliant, bleak, frustrating and above all provocative' work, while Irish philosopher Joseph Dunne calls it 'a coruscating critique of the ills of modernity'. MacIntyre was born in Glasgow to parents of Irish descent – 'who ensured that he learned Irish', Dunne points out. An 'active Trotskyite' for many years and a member of the Community Party in the UK, MacIntyre progressively moved away from Marx towards Aristotle and, in later life, converted to Catholicism. One constant throughout was a pride in his Gaelic roots. Dunne, who taught philosophy at St Patrick's College, Dublin City University and closely engaged with MacIntyre's work, told The Irish Times that, 'in an earlier atheist phase', MacIntyre 'had identified himself as a 'Catholic atheist' on the grounds that 'only Catholics worshipped a God worth denying'.' But what made After Virtue so special? The book begins with an arresting image. Picture the world of science experiencing a 'catastrophe' whereby 'laboratories are burnt down' and no one can provide a convincing proof that two plus two does not equal five. Something similar has happened to moral philosophy, MacIntyre argued. As religious certainties faded away, and as we abandoned traditional belief systems, we have been left with purely emotional judgments on morality. In short, we cry 'hurrah' and 'boo' at one another without any common ground. For MacIntyre the rot set in with the Enlightenment, and its promise of creating a moral framework divorced from history and community. The Enlightenment gave us two new ways of assessing ethical matters: human rights theory and utilitarianism. The former has strengthened recognition of individual freedom but it runs into trouble when competing rights clash. Utilitarianism advocates doing whatever maximises benefit and minimises harm. Reimagined as 'effective altruism', it is the favourite ethic of tech bros who claim to be making the world a better place while acting like jerks. MacIntyre called for a return to an earlier way of thinking known as virtue theory. This emphasises the need to cultivate characteristics like honesty, humility and compassion. In a unique and exhilarating twist, After Virtue wrapped this argument up in a wider critique of capitalism, the creeping managerialism of society and the coarsening of political language. Central to Alasdair MacIntyre's thinking is to resurrect the ancient Greek notion of telos or 'purpose' For someone who is hardly a household name, MacIntyre had an outsize influence on a generation of political scientists. In Malik's book The Quest for a Moral Compass: A Global History of Ethics, there are more references to MacIntyre than to George Berkeley, Martin Heidegger, Ludwig Wittgenstein and Voltaire put together. But he has his critics too. Liberal commentator and author Mark Lilla says After Virtue 'turned out to be one of the most influential books of our time' – but not in a good way. 'By blurring the lines between intellectual history and philosophical argument, MacIntyre ... developed a compelling just-so story about how our dark world came to be,' Lilla writes in The Shipwrecked Mind. For liberals like Lilla, we should double down on Enlightenment values, not back away from them. When faced with monsters trampling over international human rights law, we need a stronger response than appealing to virtues. We need a system for managing conflict, along with clear rules and punishments. MacIntyre opens After Virtue with an epitaph to deceased ancestors: 'gus am bris an la', Scots Gaelic for 'until the day breaks'. The book also 'ends with a kind of prayer', Lilla observes. But prayer won't stop Vladimir Putin or Binyamin Netanyahu raining missiles down on civilians. Ultimately, MacIntyre left room for debate over how we should rehabilitate our moral thinking. After Virtue does not close off the possibility of restoring virtue theory to its rightful place in our collective reasoning, while taking the best of what both human rights theory and utilitarianism have to offer. Central to MacIntyre's thinking, however, is to resurrect the ancient Greek notion of telos or 'purpose'. The Enlightenment sidelined inquiry into purpose; searching for 'the meaning of life' itself became a figure of fun. But MacIntyre believed it was essential for humans to have a meaningful story about where they came from and where they're going. He insisted, as Dunne puts it, on 'the narrative structure of a human life'. 'I can only answer the question, 'What am I to do?',' MacIntyre wrote, 'if I can answer the prior question, 'Of what story or stories do I find myself a part?'.' We have become accustomed to self-help books spoon-feeding us 'lessons for life'. But a proper work of philosophy inspires us to ask better questions.
