Memories from Ireland
1. "I was nine years old, and had started at a new school in Dublin not long before. It was afternoon in Ireland when it happened, and no one knew what was going on outside class, so we didn't find out until we were going home. Two girls from my class ran up to me as I was leaving and told me a plane had flown into the Twin Towers. I got into the car with my mom and we listened to the news all the way home. We heard about a second plane hitting, at which point it became very clear it was an attack.
When we got in, we turned on the TV and put on the only 24 hour news channel we had. There were constant replays, so I don't remember entirely what I saw live and what I saw in replay, but I'm pretty certain we saw the towers come down. That was a shock. They just collapsed like a house of cards, so neatly, first one and then the other. And then they were just gone. I remember seeing all the New Yorkers covered in dust, walking like zombies, in shock. We saw the Pentagon attack and the flight that crashed in a field. There was a feeling of being very uncertain what else would be targeted. My dad came home from work early to watch the TV with us. We watched the news for the rest of the day. It was horrific to think of all the innocent people who were dying.
We discussed it a lot in class the next day. Our teacher had spent many years in America; I think her husband was American. She remembered the Gulf War and teaching kids with parents who were deployed, and figured there would be a similar situation again. Bush wasn't popular in Europe (and became less so), but there was a big sense of solidarity with America that day. The American flag was displayed in many official buildings, and we had a nationwide minute of silence."
- Aoife Murtagh
When we got in, we turned on the TV and put on the only 24 hour news channel we had. There were constant replays, so I don't remember entirely what I saw live and what I saw in replay, but I'm pretty certain we saw the towers come down. That was a shock. They just collapsed like a house of cards, so neatly, first one and then the other. And then they were just gone. I remember seeing all the New Yorkers covered in dust, walking like zombies, in shock. We saw the Pentagon attack and the flight that crashed in a field. There was a feeling of being very uncertain what else would be targeted. My dad came home from work early to watch the TV with us. We watched the news for the rest of the day. It was horrific to think of all the innocent people who were dying.
We discussed it a lot in class the next day. Our teacher had spent many years in America; I think her husband was American. She remembered the Gulf War and teaching kids with parents who were deployed, and figured there would be a similar situation again. Bush wasn't popular in Europe (and became less so), but there was a big sense of solidarity with America that day. The American flag was displayed in many official buildings, and we had a nationwide minute of silence."
- Aoife Murtagh
2. "I was reading the 'Popbitch' message board during my lunch hour. Someone on the board posted:
'Have you seen what's happening in New York?'
'Have you seen what's happening in New York?'
Within a couple of minutes, a photo of the WTC with gaping hole in it was posted on the site. One of my coworkers called from Madrid airport in Spain as she was waiting to fly back to Ireland with a message for me:
'I know you're a newshound, so you might be interested in something I just saw in the airport - a plane's crashed into the World Trade Center.'
A bizarre coincidence: the week before I had seen a documentary on the National Geographic channel about a plane flying into the Empire State Building in thick fog during World War II. The picture online looked similar, though larger.
'What a horrendous accident. I hoped there weren't too many killed.'
'Terrorists' said someone on the board.
'How do you know?' was the response.
I sent a text message to my fiancee:
'Plane crashed into WTC in NY. Turn on TV.'
And I got a reply within 30 seconds: 'TWO planes.'
She had been walking in the door of the house when she got my message, and turned on Sky News in time to see the second plane hit, live. The anchor was speechless.
Terrorists, definitely. The culprits? First thoughts: the Serbs. Allies had blown up a skyscraper in their bombing of Belgrade. Someone suggested anti-capitalists, but I couldn't believe they'd be that crazy.
I went down to the TV room in our office, and tuned it in. There were live pictures of the two buildings burning. Gradually, more and more colleagues filtered into the room. We stared at the screen in silence.
'I know you're a newshound, so you might be interested in something I just saw in the airport - a plane's crashed into the World Trade Center.'
A bizarre coincidence: the week before I had seen a documentary on the National Geographic channel about a plane flying into the Empire State Building in thick fog during World War II. The picture online looked similar, though larger.
'What a horrendous accident. I hoped there weren't too many killed.'
'Terrorists' said someone on the board.
'How do you know?' was the response.
I sent a text message to my fiancee:
'Plane crashed into WTC in NY. Turn on TV.'
And I got a reply within 30 seconds: 'TWO planes.'
She had been walking in the door of the house when she got my message, and turned on Sky News in time to see the second plane hit, live. The anchor was speechless.
Terrorists, definitely. The culprits? First thoughts: the Serbs. Allies had blown up a skyscraper in their bombing of Belgrade. Someone suggested anti-capitalists, but I couldn't believe they'd be that crazy.
I went down to the TV room in our office, and tuned it in. There were live pictures of the two buildings burning. Gradually, more and more colleagues filtered into the room. We stared at the screen in silence.
Conor O'Clery's account of 9/11.
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Conor O'Clery, the RTE business correspondent, who had been in New York that day covering a conference that my company was taking part in, was talking over a phone link. He was watching the towers live, describing events as he perceived them, but then his voice choked.
'I'm sorry, I'm going to have to stop talking. I'm just after seeing someone jump.' Silence. The studio anchors went silent. The image of the second plane hitting was played again and again. I went back up to my desk and checked the Web: CNN was down, BBC was down, ABC NEWS was down. A lot of the contributors to Popbitch work for the British media, and the message board was still up. The board contributors had stopped their usual trivial gossip to post only what was coming off the newsfeed tickers in their offices. The occasional sick joke was made and the normally cynical board members told them to f*ck off. |
My colleague had been desperately trying to get through to her sister who lived in NYC. She had been in the mall underneath the WTC, trying on her wedding dress. She finally got her at home in her apartment. When the first plane hit the other building, she had had the immediate instinct to get the hell out. The security guards had barred the door and tried to keep her inside, but she'd elbowed them out of the way and jumped on one of the last subways out of Lower Manhattan. She was in her apartment, watching out of her window as the buildings burned, crying hysterically.
Then I got another text message from my fiancee - 'One of them has collapsed.'
I ran back down to the TV, and my colleagues ran in behind me. We saw the huge pall of dust and smoke. 'Oh my God,' someone breathed. The entire company was crowded into the small room, and we watched and watched, and then the second building fell. The death toll could be as high as 50,000. Those poor people.
'Car bomb on Capitol Hill' was the next thing I heard, then 'the Pentagon has been hit,' then 'four more plane transponders have been switched off and are heading over the Canadian border.' By now the Web was totally locked up, so I went outside and listened on the infinite bandwidth of the radio in my car. The various rumours were scotched one by one, but a plane down in Pennsylvania was confirmed.
World War III was all I could think.
Then I got another text message from my fiancee - 'One of them has collapsed.'
I ran back down to the TV, and my colleagues ran in behind me. We saw the huge pall of dust and smoke. 'Oh my God,' someone breathed. The entire company was crowded into the small room, and we watched and watched, and then the second building fell. The death toll could be as high as 50,000. Those poor people.
'Car bomb on Capitol Hill' was the next thing I heard, then 'the Pentagon has been hit,' then 'four more plane transponders have been switched off and are heading over the Canadian border.' By now the Web was totally locked up, so I went outside and listened on the infinite bandwidth of the radio in my car. The various rumours were scotched one by one, but a plane down in Pennsylvania was confirmed.
World War III was all I could think.
Tony Blair's response to the attacks.
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Back in the office, nobody could concentrate, nobody was doing anything, and I told my boss that I couldn't work on a day like this and was leaving. He agreed. Several friends had also left work early and we arranged to meet in a pub. We and all the other drinkers sat in the afternoon watching the big screen, normally reserved for sporting events, as it broadcast images of what had happened, over and over again. Tony Blair came on, live, and the entire pub was silent, gauging the British response to the American situation. We all feared an ill-considered military reaction.
The next day, British fighter jets banked over our house - by an agreement with the Irish Government they were protecting the Irish coast, and the British one by default, particularly round Wylfa nuclear power station on the Welsh coast, just a few miles over the water from Dublin. |
On my way to work, I drove past the US embassy, and there was a line of people snaking far round the building, more than a mile long, lining up to sign a book of condolences in a little tent at the front of the building. Flowers were piled high by the gates. Phantom FM, the pirate radio station I used to listen to, had switched over to live-relay a Chicago-based radio station for the benefit of US expatriates in Dublin for that week. Bertie Ahern, the Irish Prime Minister, announced a National Day of Mourning, scheduled for Friday.
Four years before, almost to the day, I had been living in Connecticut, and a friend came to visit me from England. We decided to go into Manhattan. We were planning to go up the Empire State building, but I said,
'Fuck that, let's go up the biggest one!'
We stood on the viewing platform at the top of the WTC, freaking out at the insane height. For weeks after 9/11, I dreamed of being up on that viewing gallery again, and feeling a sickening lurch as the building collapsed beneath me."
- Jimmy W
Four years before, almost to the day, I had been living in Connecticut, and a friend came to visit me from England. We decided to go into Manhattan. We were planning to go up the Empire State building, but I said,
'Fuck that, let's go up the biggest one!'
We stood on the viewing platform at the top of the WTC, freaking out at the insane height. For weeks after 9/11, I dreamed of being up on that viewing gallery again, and feeling a sickening lurch as the building collapsed beneath me."
- Jimmy W
3. "I was 14 years old and in school that day. It was a normal enough day until the afternoon when a lot of people were being called to the principals office and going home. I mentioned it to a friend (who actually had family near the towers) about how weird it was.
I plodded along as a usual school day, not doing very well at my work and failing miserably at flirting with girls. I arrived home at 4 to my mother running out to me to saying,
'World War III has started! China has bombed America!'
Why she automatically thought this I still don’t know. After calming her down and assuring her that China has not bombed America and Ireland won’t be going to war with China, I walked into my living room and watched the most bizarre event I’ve ever seen on the news. It was like something from a movie but absolutely, terrifyingly real. Even as a 14 year old I knew the world would never be the same again. These things happened in other places right? Not in countries like my country. How stupid 14 year old me was.
Thankfully as a now 33 year old I’m a little bit more clued into the ways of the world.....just a little bit"
- D. T.
I plodded along as a usual school day, not doing very well at my work and failing miserably at flirting with girls. I arrived home at 4 to my mother running out to me to saying,
'World War III has started! China has bombed America!'
Why she automatically thought this I still don’t know. After calming her down and assuring her that China has not bombed America and Ireland won’t be going to war with China, I walked into my living room and watched the most bizarre event I’ve ever seen on the news. It was like something from a movie but absolutely, terrifyingly real. Even as a 14 year old I knew the world would never be the same again. These things happened in other places right? Not in countries like my country. How stupid 14 year old me was.
Thankfully as a now 33 year old I’m a little bit more clued into the ways of the world.....just a little bit"
- D. T.