A 35-year-old construction worker from Sligo is believed to be among those killed in Tuesday's terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre.
There are fears that at least two other Irish or Irish-American co-workers died with him.
Mr Kieran Gorman, from Carrowcurragh, Lavagh, Co Sligo, was one of a group of labourers working in the 97th floor of the WTC tower No.1 when the first hijacked airliner crashed into tower No.2. He phoned his wife Ann and said "We're getting out." Minutes later the second aircraft struck tower No.2, several storeys beneath Mr Gorman's last known location. He has not been heard from since.
Last night a spokesman for Mr Gorman's family told The Irish Times they did not believe he had survived the attack.
A former Sligo county footballer, Mr Gorman lived in the Woodlawn area of the Bronx for the past nine years. he was married with two young children. He worked as a construction labourer. He had arrived back in New York on Monday after a short holiday in Ireland. He was a cousin of RT╔'s Europe editor, Mr Tommie Gorman.
New York police captain Paul McCormack said yesterday he was increasingly concerned about a number of his Irish and Irish-American friends in the police and fire services who had not been accounted for since the disaster.
"When the first building collapsed, a lot of them went into the second and the whole thing just collapsed on them. It was like a funeral pyre," he said. "We heard people crying for help and there was nothing we could do. It was very eerie, a very sad thing to hear."
Meanwhile, at the Irish Embassy in Washington, a spokesman, Mr Pat Kelly, said he could not confirm any deaths other than the mother and daughter from Cork who were on board one of the hijacked planes that crashed into the World Trade Centre.
Mr Gerry Reynolds, Fine Gael TD for Sligo-Leitrim, was in Manhattan yesterday and spoke to RT╔ radio about his two American-born cousins who were working on the 105th floor of the building hit by the first plane.
"They both contacted their wives yesterday morning at about five past nine to say that the situation was pretty serious . . . as of now we haven't heard any word from them or the family, so it's a very difficult time," he said.
Mr Niall O'Dowd, editor of the Irish Voice, described the atmosphere in Manhattan as "eerie".
He said the Irish community in New York was worried about friends and relatives who had not been accounted for. "I wouldn't want to panic anybody but there are definitely a number of other people who haven't turned up yet." Mr Kelly said there was no indication there were any more Irish nationals on any of the flights that crashed, "but that could change".
