Extract from Interview of Paul Nolan Miralles Association (Anne Ravanona, President) with Cian Taylor, Irish Times


How to search for someone who goes missing 

“When you go looking for someone who’s missing, you don’t know how long it’s going to take: you’re thrown into a situation where you’ve no idea what’s going to happen or what to do,” says Anne Ravanona, sister of Paul Nolan Miralles, a 36-year-old photographer from Dublin who went missing in Amsterdam in April 2011.

Five days into the search, his body was found in a canal. (An open verdict was recorded at the inquest.) The search was an ordeal, and the family hope that anyone facing similar circumstances can benefit from their experience. To that end, the Paul Nolan Miralles Association provides an online resource of practical tips and templates to aid missing-person cases at pnmassoc.com.

* When arriving in a foreign city to search for a loved one, as Paul’s family did when he disappeared in Amsterdam, just getting your bearings can consume valuable time. In the Netherlands, it can take 48 hours for a missing-person search to commence.

Once the police and the Irish consul have been notified, however, Ravanona suggests utilising such time to expedite the search . Note the inspector in charge and the case number for future reference. Appeal for information through flyers, posters and social-media networks as well as forming search groups with designated roles, such as media spokesperson.

Retrace any routes home the missing person may have taken, and check for cameras that may have recorded relevant CCTV footage, as many businesses override their footage after four days. Managing your energy levels throughout this process is paramount. 

“The stress level is so high,” says Ravanona, a global-management training expert based in Paris. “I slept about three hours a night during the search. I was on the go all the time.

“Whatever you can do to preserve energy, do it. It’s impossible to relax when you’re looking for someone but to be able to switch off for a few minutes will help you focus again on the task.”

* When assessing responses to public appeals, Ravanona advises treating private investigators with caution. “Such people can approach families in distress and it can cost a lot of money,” she says.

“The other thing to watch out for is mediums. There are people who say, ‘I have a vision of them’ and so on. When you’re desperate, you listen to everyone and everything. The problem is you waste time, energy and resources looking for things that are not real clues. It can give you false hope. That, for me, is the psychological damage.”

* One potentially helpful resource are search dogs who track by scent . In Ravanona’s case, volunteer dog association Signi Zoekhonden came forward and directed the search to a canal near the Hard Rock Café, where Paul was last seen. It provided the breakthrough that led to the recovery of his body. Irish Search Dogs are a similar volunteer group who are available to travel abroad.

* Though taking time out of a search to focus on your own wellbeing may not feel like a priority, but counselling can be helpful in dealing with emotions both during and after the process. “In the first six months after Paul disappeared, I was completely obsessed by what had happened,” says Ravanona.

“Counselling helped me to have a place to talk about it face to face. It’s very important in order to be able to cope with the situation and to live with it afterwards so it doesn’t take over your life, because that’s the risk.”


Read the Full Article here.

So far, we have sold nearly 20 singles of "Amsterdam Man on iTunes" which is a great start! Thank you to all of those who have already downloaded the single or ringtone.

If you'd like to listen to sample from the song or download it please click on Paul's portrait left (drawn by his sister Sarah).

Thank you for your support!

We are proud to announce the launch of our new Paul Nolan Miralles Association Facebook page, a distinct page for the association vs the In Loving Memory page that is still up.

Already 44 people have liked the new page and we'd be very happy to have more likes! 

Please press Like on the Home page or on the photo here and it's done!

We are so proud to announce the launch of the Paul Nolan Miralles website, gone live today!

This is a very important thing as it will help:

• share critical practical information to families of Missing Persons in Amsterdam
• honour the memory of Paul Nolan Miralles and keep you all up to date on what has been happening over the past few months and first year of his passing.

We hope you like this website and share the link: www.pnmassoc.com with as many of your friends as possible, to get the key information out there.

Melchor Miralles, uncle of Paul Nolan Miralles and esteemed radio presenter at ABC Punto Radio, dedicated his show "Cada Mañana sale el Sol" on the 16th April 2012 to the memory of Paul Nolan Miralles and to Rosario Nolan (Paul's mother and Melchor's sister). He also played the song "Amsterdam Man", written by Paul's brother David Nolan and featuring Ciaran Nagle on vocals (Paul's Cousin), Tara Novak (violin), Richard J. Clark (piano) for the first time in Spain.

Melchor was instrumental in the search for Paul when he went missing. Thank you so much for everything you have done Melchor, we will never forget it.

On the 13th April 2012, many of Paul's friends and colleagues from the Hard Rock Café Amsterdam gathered together to remember Paul and share happy memories.
Here is a lovely photo of the special place they created to remember Paul, and I'm sure he would have loved to taste that lovely pint of Guinness! Slainte (Cheers in Irish) Paul.

On the 13th April 2012, we organised a Celebration Party to honour Paul's memory, share happy times and have fun together, friends, family and all. Over 50 people came to the Tonic Bar in Blackrock, where Paul's brother Jaime, had done a great job in setting up the evening.

We shared photos of Paul from when he was small to last year and had a good laugh remembering some of the funny things he loved (monkeys, monkeys, Star Wars, Aston Villa, Glen Hansard, The National, Quentin Tarantino to name but a few!).

Then we proudly inaugurated the wonderful song called "Amsterdam Man" written by Paul's brother, David Nolan and sung beautifully by Ciaran Nagle, his cousin. A live band helped continue the festivities, which lasted well into the early hours!

Thank you so much to all the friends and family who came and to those who wanted to come.