Like the thousands of others in the 1980's, the less than favourable economic climate and the fact there was simply no work in Donegal, forced Paul McCormack to go to the U.S. in search of opportunities to realise his true potential. Thankfully, through determination and endeavour, the Ballybofey man climbed to the top of the ladder in his chosen profession in the New York Police Department.

After settling in New York, Paul worked in the construction industry until 1990, when he joined the Police Academy. By October that year, he was a cop based in the 42nd Precinct ,where he stayed for three and a half years. In March 1994, he was promoted to Sergeant and moved to the 46th Precinct. In May 1997, he was promoted again, this time to the rank of Lieutenant and moved on to the 45th Precinct.

He reached the rank of Captain in September, 1999, and moved to the 33rd Precinct in Manhattan for a year, and on January 2nd 2001, he was given the job of Commanding Officer at the famous 41st Precinct.

"Its been very tough and time consuming, very challenging, very draining physically and mentally but I love it. I moved around the precincts and up the ranks every couple of years, which is good, because it keeps things fresh. I've had a good career and I've been lucky. I love my work. Its something I enjoy doing. I had a very good year this year . I had the best rate of crime reduction in the Bronx, made a lot of very good arrests and locked up the right people."

In 2000, Capt. McCormack's area, 'Fort Apache' - which covers two square miles and a population of approximately 70,000 people - dealt with 36 index crimes, (shootings, robberies, felony assaults, burglaries, rapes, homicides, grand larcenies and stolen cars) per week. Last year, this was down to 26 with the highlight probably the successful arrest of the perpetrators and seizure of 300 kilos of cocaine.

One of the biggest challenges on top of normal policing matters facing the 33 year old in 2002 comes directly as a result of the events of September 11th.

"We have the largest food market in the world, the Hunts Point Food Market in the south end of my precinct, and because of September 11th, the Fulton Fish Market which was down beside Ground Zero is moving up, so this will bring in a lot more traffic, people and - with it - a lot more crime."

Speaking to the Democrat, nearly four months since the bombing of the World Trade Centre, Paul says despite a bonding between the people of New York and the U.S. in general, things will never be the same again. He goes down there every once in a while. It's a 25 minute drive from his base in South Bronx to Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan.

"We are back to work as normal. Two cops from every Precinct have been assigned there permanently until things are cleared up. In reality it now looks like a construction site."

He points out the American people, including the Irish community, are happy with the focused, measured response from the U.S. authorities since September 11th.

"Generally people are very happy with the response from President Bush and Mayor Giuliani. There's been a focused and measured response from the military too...they haven't gone in with all guns blazing. It's a very tough situation."

Paul adds that while he did not lose any men from his own Precinct in the tragedy, a lot of comrades he had worked with over the years had been killed.

"For the first couple of months, we didn't even have time to think about things. It was work, sleep and back to work again. We had to get back to business as usual. Even now I still haven't had time to reflect on things properly. A lot of victims' families are still coming to terms with it, but its also true to say the incident had welded the people together, more than anything else since I've been in the country."

"We've had a lot of counselling for our cops since September 11th because a lot of people were affected by it, but hopefully we can try and get back to normal and get on with our lives."

Of course, Paul is still very much a Donegal man. His contact with the county and willingness to play any supportive role is legendary. His friendship with anti-drugs campaigner, Clr. P.J.Blake from Letterkenny has been evolving into direct action and innovative ideas for anti-drugs campaigns here. His contact with communities on both sides of the Atlantic was recently honoured at the AIB/Rehab Donegal People of the Year Awards, and no doubt Commanding Officer Paul McCormack, NYPD, will continue to make his mark for many years to come.