9 11 where were you when it happened?

stpauls · September 12, 2008, 11:34:16 AM

was on the way into Newry to buy stuff for my placement year in Munich, and was listening to the news on the radio when the first report came through. the girl i was with at the time started to cry and took out her phone to make a phone call. discovered her cousin worked in the WTC and she was trying to make sure he was ok. luckily he was only on the 5th floor and was able to make it out ok. stood outside Dixons in the Buttercrane and saw the second plane crash into the other tower, and then watched the collapse.

D4S · September 12, 2008, 12:29:35 PM

I think it's one of those things you always remember where you were!

I was cleaning out my student house in Belfast with my mate and his mum before moving in as freshers. We had no radio or tv all day in house and we didnt hear anything until we got into the car to drive home at around 5.30pm! My mates uncle was in the NewYorkFireDepartment and had been killed about 4 weeks previous to this while attending a fire while working. Always remember his mum saying at least he died then as he would have been at the WTC and they may never have had a body.

The Watcher Pat · September 12, 2008, 12:37:55 PM

I was only home from NY about a month at the time....Was working at the time and couldn't really hear much about it until i got home....Tried to phone the mates back in NY and copuldn't get through....Very worried all day!! Thankfully everyone was ok.

D4S · September 12, 2008, 12:41:51 PM

Can I also just add that although 9/11 is no worse than say the Rwandan Genocide or the daily bombs in Baghdad or the deaths in Georgia last month, it still holds such a significance 7 years on for us as it happened in the western world. The so called developed world...we hear daily on the news perhaps that there has been a bomb in Baghdad 65 people dead, we watch for a minute think to ourselves god that's terrible then we switch it over to the football or eastenders! If it was a bomb in London, New York, LA we sit up and take note and listen to the news about the implications because like it or not it does affect us as the UK and Ireland's governments are strongly linked with America, and we all have so many family who have been or are living there.

Gaoth Dobhair Abu · September 12, 2008, 01:04:20 PM

For me one of the most defining moments in modern world history would be Michael Burkes report from Ethiopia about the famine, and the subsequent world reaction, never before had the Western world come together for good like it did then.
Those images of starving children and the helpless looks on the peoples faces will last with me forever, I wasn't much more then a child myself.

mhacadoir · September 12, 2008, 01:12:21 PM

i was sick and at home, i remember a family friend ringing to say to put on the tv, and worried because my aunts both lived in NYC. sat watching it and ringing america constantly, but the phiones were jammed. my aunt rang, she was on the roof in queens watching the towers in flames, the tv pics were about ten seconds later than real events cus she started screaming the towers are falling before they came down on tv.
My uncle works for the NYPD and was in manhatten that day and worked at ground zero for about two weeks after. other uncle was supposed to be working on construction site in manhatten that day but got called off last minute. so scary to think what could have been

Over the Bar · September 12, 2008, 01:14:25 PM

QuoteCan I also just add that although 9/11 is no worse than say the Rwandan Genocide or the daily bombs in Baghdad or the deaths in Georgia last month, it still holds such a significance 7 years on for us as it happened in the western world. The so called developed world...we hear daily on the news perhaps that there has been a bomb in Baghdad 65 people dead, we watch for a minute think to ourselves god that's terrible then we switch it over to the football or eastenders! If it was a bomb in London, New York, LA we sit up and take note and listen to the news about the implications because like it or not it does affect us as the UK and Ireland's governments are strongly linked with America, and we all have so many family who have been or are living there.

You are right. The Titanic sunk nearly 100 yrs ago with 1,400 lives lost and everyone knows about it. A ferry called the Estonia sank in the Baltic 10 yrs ago with similar tragic losses and most ppl have never heard of it.... weird!

full back · September 12, 2008, 02:01:59 PM

Another reason why 9/11 seems to have stayed with us is that many many people knew someone who was in New York at the time.
For this reason a lot of people were frantic with worry until they found out about their friends/family

Over the Bar · September 12, 2008, 02:35:02 PM

I still to this day find it hard to believe that no-one connected with the construction of the building, either the architects or government structural engineers, could not have foreseen the possibility of the 2 towers collapsing and got a message thru to the NYFD to evacuate as quickly as possible.

The damage that a fully laden & fuelled DC-10 would do to the structure is incalculable and to be 100% sure that it the towers would not fall as a consequence is criminally negligent. 1000's of lives were lost unnecessarily.