The family of a 30-year-old Clare man who vanished in New York City almost two months ago has appealed to the Irish American community for any scrap of information that might help trace him. Jordan McGrath, from Clarecastle, arrived in the city in mid-August and has not been in contact with anyone at home since.
His mother, Fiona McGrath, told The Irish Times that the last activity recorded on her son’s bank card was at the 101 Hotel in Manhattan’s Bowery district, where he paid $350 for a single night on August 13. There has been no movement on any of his cards since that date, and the family now fears he is sleeping rough in a city where he has few contacts.
Speaking to The Irish Times, Fiona McGrath said the family is “very worried that he may have become homeless.”
Mother appeals for help to find Irish man (30) missing in New York https://t.co/l6hTi1FeGL
— The Irish Times (@IrishTimes) October 11, 2026
It was not Jordan’s first trip to New York. He had traveled there in June but came home to Ireland after less than a week, his mother said. During that brief visit he spent one night among the city’s homeless community and three more in hotels, and he told his family he had taken a liking to New Yorkers before calling to say he was coming back. Two months later he was on a flight to the city again.
Relatives have struggled to piece together his plans since. Fiona McGrath said he would have needed a return booking in order to travel to the United States, but the family has been unable to establish what date he was due to fly home. She said officers from the NYPD have checked hospitals and mortuaries across the city without finding any trace of him, a result the family has taken as one small piece of reassurance.
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Jordan’s father Brian, his brother Michael and his sister Chelsea, along with several aunts and uncles, have spent weeks reaching out to anyone who might have seen him.
He is described as being roughly 5ft 7in tall and of slight build, with light brown hair to his shoulders and a beard. He has blue eyes and a piercing at the back of his neck.
The Aisling Irish Community Center in Yonkers has shared the appeal with its followers, asking Irish and Irish American New Yorkers across the tri-state area to watch out for him. The center has operated from McLean Avenue since 1996 and works closely with newly arrived Irish immigrants and with vulnerable members of the diaspora, including Irish people living on the streets of New York.
Anyone who recognizes Jordan McGrath, or who has seen him anywhere in the five boroughs since the middle of August, is asked to contact the NYPD’s 5th Precinct at (212) 334-0711 or the Consulate General of Ireland in New York at (212) 319-2555.
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