BILL COSGROVE’s eyes shone with tears after the “ceremony of reflection and peace” commemorating the 10-year anniversary of 9/11 in Dublin’s RDS yesterday.
“I haven’t had a dry eye at any point during this,” said the retired New York police lieutenant standing beside a crystal sculpture crafted as a response to the atrocity. A squat dark stone embedded in the glass work of “Miracle in Stairwell B” turned out to have been salvaged from the World Trade Center.
“This is always an unusual day for me,” he said. “My wife doesn’t even want to be near me during this time. It has been made slightly easier by being here away from New York and I am so grateful for the hospitality of the Irish people.”
The hour-long event hosted by the US embassy in Dublin was filled with poignant moments as the almost 3,000 people who lost their lives were remembered: Cosgrove’s short speech of gratitude as he stood on stage with three firefighters, some of whom had been among the “first responders” at the site, provoking a lengthy standing ovation from the 600 invited guests.
The Taoiseach reading Anything Can Happen– Seamus Heaney's poem inspired by the attacks on the twin towers.
The world premiere of Termon, a stunning piece of music commissioned by the American Ireland Fund and composed by Micheál Ó Suilleabháin and performed by the Irish Chamber Orchestra and Pádraic Keane on uilleann pipes.
Master of ceremonies Ryan Tubridy reading from the list of names of the Irish who were killed on the day. A list, he said, that “went on and on and on”. The minute’s silence that coincided with the exact moment 10 years ago when the first plane struck.
The sombre event was attended by the US ambassador Dan Rooney, President Mary McAleese, Taoiseach Enda Kenny, the Lord Mayor of Dublin Cllr Andrew Montague and Ministers including Michael Noonan, Joan Burton and Alan Shatter.
Others present included presidential candidate Michael D Higgins, Senator Katherine Zappone, John O’Shea of Goal and Mairead McGuinness MEP.
Dressed in a black dress suit Mrs McAleese gave a speech in which she said 9/11 could never be defined by the people “who demolished the fundamental human rights of those who died, were injured or bereaved. It will forever,” she said, “be defined by those men and women whose decency and determination stood strong and valiant in defence of the human values and human dignity which are the very bedrock of true democracies”. She ended with a plea. “May love triumph always.”
Earlier in the day, the President attended "Heroism and Horror", a multi-faith commemoration service in the chapel of the training centre of Dublin Fire Brigade on the other side of the city. It included bible readings, an Irish Muslim prayer and a reading of an excerpt from The Diary of Anne Frank.
One of the most affecting contributions from the RDS ceremony came from Seán Egan creator of “Miracle on Stairwell B”. He told the guests how in 2006 New York firefighter Michael O’Rourke, then on holiday in Ireland, discovered him at work in Waterford Crystal carving a glass tribute to the 9/11 rescue workers, including Bill Cosgrove, who was among those who carried the dead body of fire fighter Chaplain Fr Mychal Judge from the rubble of the towers.
O’Rourke, who was in the RDS yesterday, put Egan in touch with the New York fire-fighting authorities and the piece “9/11 Tribute” was subsequently installed on 31st Street, Engine 1, Ladder 24, across the road from where Fr Judge was based.
After the ceremony, family members of victims milled around with politicians and men in uniform.
Tipperary woman Amanda Coughlan had travelled from her home in Monaghan with her two-year-old daughter Megan to honour the memory of her uncle Martin John Coughlan. The Tipperary man, who emigrated to New York in the 1980s, was killed in the South Tower where he was working as a carpenter.
“It doesn’t feel like 10 years at all,” she said. “It is still a big struggle for us especially for his wife and four daughters. One of them is down at Ground Zero today reading the names. It’s very raw especially at this time of year.”
She said the day felt “surreal” and that she was especially moved by a performance from the New York-based Soul Steps Dance Troupe. They concluded the ceremony with a raucous and powerful display of dance during which the names of some victims were read out.
“I feel sometimes the little-known victims are forgotten. Martin went to do a job that day too. He was a carpenter working to support his four daughters through college. The dancers seemed to represent the ordinary civilian.”
Before leaving she said the years had done little to ease the grief of the family’s loss. “That ache in our hearts, I don’t think it will ever go away.”