Posted by Jim on September 18, 2022
Remembering Father Mychal Judge and all of the heroes of 9/11
Posted by Jim on September 10, 2022
Remembering the hero, an Irish priest, who was the first who died during the Sept 11, 2001, World Trade attacks.
Sep 09, 2022
Twenty-one years on, the memories of Ground Zero’s heroic first responders live on for New Yorkers.
It still feels like September 11, 2001, just happened. How could I forget? Every morning on my way to and from work I pass the Franciscan friary on West 31st Street where victim number one, the revered Father Mychal Judge, chaplain to the fire department, hurriedly changed from his Franciscan robe into his Fire Department chaplain’s uniform and rushed to help his beloved firefighters.
He was killed in the first collapse. A French camera crew caught the moment seconds before he died, as he prayed fervently for the men around him trying to save lives. He actually died of a heart attack, it was later determined, and became the symbolic first victim of the inferno that day.
He was a true man of God, a great friend to Officer Steven MacDonald and his son Conor and wife Patty after Steve was paralyzed from the neck down by a bullet while chasing down a criminal in Central Park.
That’s how I mostly knew Mychal – showing up with the MacDonald family, making sure Steve met all the dignitaries at our events from President Clinton on down. He was impossible not to like.
There are banners across the road at the fire station opposite the friary, all of them remembering the fallen firemen. There is a new generation of firemen there now, looking impossibly young to me, but the bravery and camaraderie are evident even from afar. This is a close-knit community.
Then there were the people I knew personally through our magazine Irish Americ
Every year we celebrate the best of the Irish on Wall Street. On July 11, 2001, we selected the Word Trade Center’s Windows on the World as our location.
I remember a friendly Irish employee taking me up on the roof that night and gazing out at one of the most spectacular views in America – Manhattan in all its glory, the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn and the New Jersey coastline.
At our party, that night, were honorees from Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Chairman & CEO Joe Berry, and Executive Vice-President Joseph Lenihan who both died on 9/11. Another victim from the same firm, Chris Duffy, was the son of beloved Wall Street 50 honoree John Duffy.
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At the top of Tower One, the breathtaking view from Windows on the World was the ideal setting to toast the many achievements of the Irish and their descendants in the U.S. Little did we know the disaster that awaited some of us standing on that very spot a few months later.
I think too of Corkman Ron Clifford who made it out of the burning building only to learn that his beloved sister and niece were in one of the planes that crashed. What a cruel fate.
Nothing good has ever emerged from the tragedy. The crisis in Syria today is a byproduct; ISIS is a direct result of it. The world changed for the worst that long ago day and we have all been deeply impacted by it.
What we can hang on to is the heroism of cops, firefighters, ordinary people that day. There is hope while such heroism exists.
Remembering from afar – 9/11 memorials in Ireland
Posted by Jim on September 7, 2022
There are five 9/11 memorials in Ireland in tribute to all those, including many Irish and Irish Americans, who were killed on that tragic day in New York City.
Sheila Langan@SheiLangan
Sep 07, 2022
Exhausted 9/11 first responders at Ground Zero on Sept 11 2001, at the World Trade Center. GETTY
The victims of the September 11 attacks in New York City are remembered in memorials across Ireland.
In the years since the attacks on September 11, 2001, memorials both big and small have been built throughout the United States, as well as around the globe.
The most immediate ones were impromptu – garlands draped on a parked car it became clear no one would claim, notes and photographs taped to fences and walls around New York City, candles placed outside of Ladder Company firehouses.
Others came in time. With the realization that so many people would not be coming home, names were added to lists that grew longer and longer. Names of firefighters, of executives and their staff members, of police officers, of building workers, of airplane passengers, of Pentagon officials – 2,973 in total. Their names are now engraved and commemorated in hundreds of permanent memorials in the most directly devastated areas – New York, New Jersey, Washington, DC, and Pennsylvania – and in some less expected places, providing a lasting reminder of the global effect of the September 11th attacks.
At least five such memorials have been built in Ireland. At least 18 Irish citizens – 7 born on the island of Ireland – were killed on September 11, 2001, as did scores of other people of Irish descent – from many of the financial workers in the upper floors of the Twin Towers to a significant number of the brave FDNY and NYPD members who tried to rescue them.
Ireland’s National Memorial to the Fighting 69th and the Victims of September 11th – Co Sligo
Ireland’s national monument to the Fighting 69th, the most Irish of the US Army’s Infantry Regiments, serves as a tribute to the civilians who perished on 9/11, as well as to the soldiers of the 69th who were among the first military units to respond following the attacks, and who have served in the war in Iraq. Located in Ballymote, Co Sligo, the memorial was dedicated in August 2006 by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and family members of Irish American victims of 9/11, including Jack Lynch, the father of Irish American firefighter Michael Lynch, who was killed during the collapse of Tower 2.
The monument consists of a copper cylinder, which is intertwined with steel donated from the wreckage of the World Trade Center. Etched images of Sligo native and Civil War Brigadier General Michael Corcoran, one of the commanders of the Fighting 69th, adorn the structure.
Donadea 9/11 Memorial – Co Kildare
In Donadea Forest Park, Co Kildare, a pair of scaled-down limestone replicas of the Twin Towers stand in a clearing surrounded by oak tree saplings. Officially presented on September 21, 2003, the memorial towers are engraved with the names of the 402 public officials who died during the attacks.
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The inspiration for the memorial was Sean Tallon, a young fireman whose family had emigrated from Dondea to New York, who had frequently visited his grandparents in Dondea. At the ceremony, Kildare Mayor Michael Fitzpatrick said “We wanted to do something to remember Sean and his colleagues and all the other public officials who died that day. This wonderful memorial is the result.”
Glendalough Hermitage 9/11 Memorial – Co Wicklow
Glendalough, Co Wicklow, one of Ireland’s most well-known places of Christian pilgrimage, offers visitors a quiet space to contemplate the events and aftermath of 9/11. Part of the larger spiritual journey of the Glendalough Hermitage Centre’s meditation garden, Br. Joseph McNally’s sculpture of the towers “marks the tragedy and challenge to peace posed by this event and is located in the context of a path reflecting on the defining choices we make.”
Father Mychal Judge 9/11 Memorial – Co Leitrim
Those words could just as easily be applied to FDNY Chaplain Fr. Mychal Judge, whose defining choice to help those in need and to offer comfort in times of trouble ultimately lead to his death on the morning of September 11th. Two memorials in Ireland recognize his incredible journey and testify to his lasting influence.
The son of immigrants from Co Leitrim, Fr. Judge began his seminary training at age 15 and was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest thirteen years later, in 1961. A dedicated Franciscan, he was also one of the Order of the Friars Minor, and served at the Church of St. Francis of Assisi on West 31st Street, right across from the Engine Company 1/Ladder Company 4 firehouse.
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Father Mychal Judge.
In September 2001, Fr. Judge had been Chaplain of the FDNY for nine years – always there for victims, firefighters, and their families. He was in the lobby of the North Tower, delivering prayers and aid when he was crushed by debris from the collapse of the South Tower at 9:59 am. His body was recovered and was among the first to be carried out of Ground Zero, which made Fr. Judge, on the official record, victim 0001.
The people of Keshkerrigan, Co Leitrim, the town Fr. Judge’s father left in 1926, and which he had visited the year before, built a memorial in his honor and in remembrance of all those whose lives were lost. The Fr. Mychal Judge Peace Garden sits on land that belonged to the Judge family, on the shores of Kesh Lake, just outside the main village. Fr. Judge’s twin sister, Dymphna Jessich, traveled from New York for the inaugural commemoration ceremony on September 11, 2005, and donated the flag that covered Fr. Judge’s casket to the town of their father’s ancestors. The memorial was hailed by Michael Daly of the New York Daily News as “An Irish Tribute that Gets it Right.”
Ringfinnan Garden of Remembrance, also known as Kinsale 9/11 Garden of Remembrance – Co Cork
Across the island, in Kinsale, Co Cork, a second Irish memorial honors Fr. Judge, and the firefighters he both worked with and befriended. The Ringfinnan Garden of Remembrance contains 343 trees – one for each of the firefighters and first responders lost. It was initiated by Kathleen Murphy, a nurse in New York City who was born in Kinsale and whose family continues to live there. The first tree was planted just two months after 9/11, in November 2001, and the garden was officially dedicated on March 10, 2002.
* Originally published in 2011. Last updated in September 2022.