Where were you on September 11th 2001?

Flying Abruptly

I was in second year in school, remember waiting to go into after school study and seeing one of the older teachers in the school visibly shaken and mentioning something to the sixth years about a plane crashing into the twin towers in America. Its only when I got home and seeing the pictures on the news later did I realise what was actually going on. Say that documentary on Ch4 a couple of days ago and its still gives me shivers re-watching it.

I seem to remember my brother getting his junior cert results the next day but there wasn't much attention paid to results in the papers or on tv, understandably.

landsleaving

I was in bed having a lovely day off school 'sick'. I went to watch the usual day off crap, kids tv and talk shows, and saw what happened. No Ricki Lake that day.

SeaFields

Was at home watching telly when there was a newsflash. Watched it for the whole day. Went to work that evening and staff were going up to the electrical shop in the shopping centre I was in to watch it on the televisions up there along with a big crowd of the public.

A buddy of mine was on a J1 in the states. He got one of the flights they hijacked the week before.

antomagoo

Had been sent to Sligo that morning to a job. Myself and another lad, had just got breakfast rolls after the long drive down and were sitting in the van overlooking the sea, cant remember exactly where in Sligo town. Anyway it started to be reported on all the radio stations that a plane had hit one of the towers. Next thing we spot this bloke (big bushy beard) and a red haired woman stripping off and heading into the sea buck naked and dancing around in the water with their arms raised to the sky :eek:

Atavan-Halen

I had just come home from school(I think I was in 3rd class or so) and it was on sky news.

caroj

I first heard about the attack on the 4.00pm news after finishing a course I was doing at the time. My sister says they heard it on Joooooe Duffy. I remember it was a really beautiful sunny day and Mam was out mowing the lawn while the rest of the family were glued to the Tv.

Min

I was at home eating spaghetti bolognese and I was watching Sky news. They they went to breaking news that a plane had hit one of the world trade centre buildings.
I was watching and saw the other plane and was thinking...why is that plane flying so close to the other building, next thing there was an explosion.
I was in shock as I had a trip planned to New York for that month and I had planned to visit the WTC, you know go to the top of the tallest building in NY and in shock that the US was under a terrorist attack.
Then reports came in of more planes being hijacked and the Pentagon was hit by a plane.
It was just a crazy day, it was like watching a real life Hollywood movie.

My neighbour was in tears as she has relations in New York and some work in the police force, there were reports that some police had died when the buildings collapsed. She couldn't get through to NY to find out if they were ok, thankfully they were.

My parents didn't want me to go on holidays there then after that, I was determined to go and went, now when I think about it I remember the smell of burning steel and the firefighter with his fire hose spraying water onto rubble that was several stories high.
It is something no one will forget what they were doing when they found out or watched it live.
The years have gone fast.

okioffice84

unknown13 wrote: »

Looking back. 9/11 is probably one of the most important days in the World because the amount of things that have changed since then has been ridiculous.

Dunno about that now....I'm still in the same shít job.

Conor108

4th class

PrincessLola

I was ten and being driven in the car to ballet lessons when my mum told me about it. Being the self-centered little demon child that I was I just shrugged it off, but I suppose I didn't really comprehend at the time the scale of what had happened.

I was coming home from school and turned on the news. My brother was in Greece with an ex of his when it happened and all the news channels were in Greek so all they could see was buildings on fire and for a few hours they thought World War Three had started. It wasn't until the next day that they found a newspaper in English that they found out what happened fully.

CPSW

Was 19 at the time working in a shop in Jervis St. Will never forget that day as the manager and assistant manager were on a course, so the trainee boss was running the show (and we were all skiving around doing nothing).

Was heading on my lunch and as the shop had the radio playing (low volume) over the PA as I had one foot out the door, I thought I heard that there was an incident that a crane had collapsed at the WTC.

Was eyeing up a new radio so decided to head to the electronics department in Arnotts for a look while on my lunch. Can still recall the sight of about 20 different TV's showing the same images, everyone was stopped still in amazement eyes peeled to the various screens. I had happened to be standing beside an American lady, who was near tears watching what was happening live.

9 years later I work for an American bank based here in the IFSC, and deal on an everyday basis with clients who survived the attacks.

grudgebringer

In the Bank Of Ireland in Blanch getting Dollars as we were leaving to fly into NY on September 14th ... still massive plumes of smoke coming from the area as we flew in to JFK, very sad time ..... will never forget it

itac

Was in Sligo town, supposed to be collecting sponsorship prizes for grad night, when a friend of mine came running around the corner, and just yelled "someone tried to blow up the pentagon!" and ran off.

He was, and still is, a mad joker, so I assumed he was spouting crap, til I went into a pub where I'd just started working, to find the place in total silence, everyone glued to the tv....they were replaying the two planes hitting over, and over.

Couldn't take it in myself, started panicking about family over there, (who thankfully were safe) and rushed home. Parents were out, and I sat in front of the tv from 5pm til darkness, in tears watching the towers come down, and eventually feeling completely overwhelmed and numbed by the events, but incapable of turning off the tv incase something else happened. Occasionally making a cuppa, and just looking out at that clear blue sky, and the Atlantic, and knowing that across that huge expanse, the world was so changed, yet everything still looked so normal here. That footage of Bush being told the news still scares me, the look of helplessness on his face...

Hard to believe it's almost 9 years, sometimes it feels like only a year or two ago. The footage from the day can still reduce me to tears in seconds..such a different world we now live in, all because of that day...:(

The Real B-man

2nd Year in Irish :rolleyes:

qwertplaywert

barrackali wrote: »

Was in hospital getting diagnosed with MS on 9/11, I quickly realised that there were many people in worse **** than me.

Slightly similar, I was in hospital with meningitis watching the tv when the story broke, nothing like a terrorist attack to make a potentially fatal disease seem like small peas!

orourkeda

peanuthead wrote: »

I was in bed after the debs. Alone.

The lack of fanny (or shaft) on the debs night is the real tragedy here.

Overheal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlRm2-QgHYg

Axwell

In New York, was staying in the Roosevelt Hotel about 3 miles away when the whole thing happened.

Sticky_Fingers

Just reading through that thread that was posted during the WTC attack and one post just jumped out, talk about hitting the nail on the head concerning the decade following the attacks:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=273673&postcount=62

CorsetIsTight

That was the day I came home from hospital with my new-born daughter. I walked into the sitting room with my baby in my arms and the phone was ringing. It was my mother-in-law and she just told me to turn on the television.

I wasn't really listening to her and started talking about my wonderful baby, and she just told me again to turn on the television because a plane had hit the WTC.

I hung up and did as I was told and saw the second plane hitting - it took me a few minutes to realise that it wasn't just a replay of the first one.

I sat down on the edge of the coffee table and watched in horror as the events unfolded. My memories of the images have a weird overlay of the memory of the mixture of smells - the congratulatory flowers in the room, the smell of the hospital from the blanket around my daughter, and most of all that newborn baby smell.

I couldn't put my baby down, just kept clutching her to me, almost breathing her into me, convincing myself that the world hadn't completely gone to hell.

Nead21

I was 20 at the time and heading into my third year in college. I was totally shocked when watching it on RTE. Started crying when the NY correspondent was describing how people were jumping out the towers...i'll never forget the sheer panic in their voice

WobyTide

I was hauling ass as fast as possible to Tora Bora.

brian1991

First of all, I'd like to thank the OP for starting this thread. There was a similar thread last year, which I have also read in its entirety and can be found here: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055675490

The first plane hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center at 13:46 GMT, so I was still at school. I had just started fourth class and thought I was pretty grown up, little did I know. At 14:03 Irish time the second plane hit the South Tower. At 14:59 GMT the South Tower collapsed (and it wouldn't be long until the North Tower followed suit at 15:28). This brings us to three o' clock, when school ended for me back then. Now as far as I know I didn't hear anything about what was happening in the US until I got home and turned on the television in our living room, probably looking for Den 2, but ending up with RTÉ News; perhaps Network 2 was showing the news as well as RTÉ One that day. My memories of that day are unclear at best. Apparently, I was the one who alerted my family to what was happening. My sister recently told me that on that day I was ''freaking out'' though I have no recollection of being like this. I was familiar with the Twin Towers as I would see them in almost every episode of Friends, and I would hear of the Pentagon and see it on tv occasionally too.
Just before One World Trade Center collapsed (or perhaps just before) my mother told us to join hands. We kneeled down in the living room and she said to pray for ''those poor people in New York''. I remember hearing on the news about the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania. As a nine year old, I did not come close to realizing the implications of what had happened. Details were unclear at times too; I recall hearing on the news at different times that there were six people confirmed dead, and at one point this unconfirmed death toll skyrocketed to thirty-thousand and above. In the end, just under three thousand people died that day and over six thousand were injured. I remember our teacher discussing it at school the next day in detail, and discussing it with friends there too. That Friday I remember going to a memorial Mass at a local church and having to sit or stand at the very back as it was so crowded.
Some other images that stick in my mind from that day are the people who fell to their deaths, the smoke billowing from the North Tower and the smoke/ash/debris cloud filling the streets of Lower Manhattan so quickly.
My father was at work at the time and thought it was a movie at first when he saw the news. I remember how my brother still did homework that day (he had just started secondary school), and how the news was repeated on RTÉ over and over again, with no regular programming broadcast, apart from the Six One news etc of course.

Below is RTÉ's coverage of 9/11 (if anyone has any other footage of Irish tv coverage, please post it here or PM me). In the YouTube comments section, many people said they remembered Brian Dobson being close to tears that day, and who could blame him?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cQPU_9C6B4

The finest 9/11 documentary that I have seen is 102 Minutes That Changed America, which you can see part one of below also:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnZWBmX41tw

Finally, if you want to read more stories, and add your story, go to http://www.wherewereyouon911.com/main.asp

May we never forget what happened that day.

Vanbis

orourkeda wrote: »

The lack of fanny (or shaft) on the debs night is the real tragedy here.

I laughed...

I was young and working in a well know Supermarket chain. I'll always remember it been so quiet that afternoon.

markesmith

Amsterdam, at the start of an inter-railing holiday.

Didn't find out about what happened until the 13th.

Was in Florence, and saw a "sandwich board" advertising a new headline which said "Apocallisa in America" (sp?).

Thought it was a new Will Smith movie or something, though I had an idea something was up. People were very subdued on the train journey, saw a few people crying.

Shivers26

I was in town with my friend shopping for a handbag for the debs. I remember we both got loads of texts from people telling us it had happened. We ended up standing in the Usit offices on the quays watching Sky News on their tv's

susita06

i was on flight from salou to shannon when the first plane hit and in shannon airport when the second one happened!!!! it was crazy people running around the airport looking for phone etc

Killer Pigeon

I was only in 5th class in primary school. I remember coming home from school, walked in the front door and my mam goes, "A second plane hit, a second plane just hit, oh my god, oooohhh my goood". I thought she had gone mad or something. I looked at the TV and thought it was some sort of movie or something.

In the evening, my Dad rang up his cousin who lives on long island and commutes to work in New York. Lucky she was grand and didn't actually work in that part of the city.

Skinfull

In galway, in smyths, buying top trumps for my nephews birthday when I heard. Went back to the hotel, into the lobby bar for pints and major Sky news intake!

Saw the 2nd plane hit and it was astounding!