What is the most historic event you witnessed?

pragmatic1

The end of the troubles.
9/11.
Human genome decoded.
Fall of the Berlin wall.
Queens visit.
New millenium.
Dolly the sheep.

ArtyM

The loss of my virginity. It may not matter a damn to you guys but it was a f**kin epic moment in my history.

AG2R

Obama

walshb

David Blaine levitating, or sitting in a box.

Only kidding; he's a twat

For me it is without doubt the tragic September 11th attacks. Still difficult to believe that it happened. To see such power being unleashed, misery and death all in one act, is something I will never forget.

irjudge

McDonalds drivethrough coming to Drogheda.

ICE HOUSE

Joe Strummers last gig

Skinfull

In person I guess the most historic thing I remember (barely) is Bobby Sands Funeral. That was surreal and the significance of it was beyond my comprehension at such a young age.

And on a lighter note, in Millenium stadium for Ireland Grand Slam :cool:

But on tv I remember vividly camped out infront of Sky News in a bar in Galway, watching both towers collapse on 9/11. :eek:

losthorizon

Fernando Whining Tango wrote: »

+1.

I'd have thought the same.

But I guess live TV has made the world a smaller place.

For me it would be witnessing the civil war in Beirut, then the night we were leaving.

General Michel Aoun and his Chritian forces were making their last stand in East Beirut and some Israeli forces were engaged in a battle in the mountains to the south - I remember looking at it all and thinking 'well its someone else's war now', and I felt like a voyeur looking in on something obscene.

Four hours later I was drinking with my civilian friends back home here in Dublin and not wanting to tell anyone about it all.

Can I ask did that have any effect on you? Did you like the Lebanese?

Selinab85

The towers in Ballymun coming down - Sad but true - For a local here it was history in the making of the community.. That's prob the only thing I've first handidly witnessed.

Everything else seen it on TV.

My own personal one would prob be Take That reforming... hahaha :P

DublinWriter

In 1974 I remember being in Dublin city centre during the bombings.

My mother had brought myself and a couple of the neighbour's kids in to see Jungle Book at the Curzon at the top of Parnell St.

I remember hearing a really deep resonant boom and seeing a pall of smoke come up into the sky.

It was then followed by another such explosion.

Ten minutes later I remember my dad flying around the junction at Dorset St., bundling us all up in the cab of truck he has driving at the time.

All high drama for a four year old, but with the benefit of hindsight you can only really appreciate the true horror of the situation.

Biscuits.

I was there.....when the whole of Ireland failed maths.

The SEC made sure to make project maths look good by making HL and OL papers too hard, but they forgot that project maths isn't practical at all, entirely new without resources and nothing like our sample papers.

It was horrific.

Marty McFly

I think tv can be used especially for something like 9/11 as its one of those things that everyone always remebers where they were and what they were doing when it happened.

Also for me being in pairs for the Ireland game when henry handballed still was a great hol though Irish fans rule the world.

Also getting to see Oasis at slane before they broke up.

Run_to_da_hills

I witnessed the first Aer Lingus Boeing 747 100 series to land at Dublin Airport in 1971 as a child

Watched the Stenna Explorer HSS 1500 make its maiden voyage into Dunlaoghaire Harbour in 1996.

I may be soon witnessing its last voyage. :mad:

MayoForSam

Playing the tin whistle in the local national school boy's band at the Knock Airport opening ceremony .

Rented Mule

NothingMan wrote: »

Saw The Smashing Pumpkins first last ever show. I won't be seeing their next one.

I was at those shows as well (United Center and Metro).

Biggins

* 9/11
* Berlin Wall falling
* TV moving from black and white to broadcasting in colour (Gawd I remember the test cards and TV closing down at night LOL)
* The Manchester Arndale Shopping Centre bombing (was far too close for comfort on that!)
* Any number of wars long since passed.
* The breakup of Czechoslovakia and former USSR
* The whole South Africa turn about.

Thats just a few off the top of my head.

flutterflye

Don't think I have witnessed anything particularly historic.

The last Nine Inch Nail gig is literally all I can come up with!

Freddie59

*The Prague Spring (as a nine year old being terrified by it).

*Moon Landings (in colour in RTV rentals:D)

*The first World Cup Final I can remember in 1970 (Brazil 4 - 1 Italy).

*Colour TV.

*'Piped' TV.

*Bloody Sunday

*3 General Elections in 18 months

*H Block hunger Strikes.

*American withdrawal from Vietnam.

*Concorde's maiden flight.

*Space Shuttle's maiden flight

*1st Satellite TV signals in Ireland (from Russia).

*Russian withdrawal from Afghanistan.

*First VCRs

*First CDs

*Fall of Communism & The Berlin Wall.

*First Mobile phones

*Italia '90.:D

*Gulf War

*First MP3s

*The internet.

*First DVDs

*9/11

*The greatest European Cup Final of all time in 2005 (AC Milan v Liverpool).

*The closure of a national Institution - Waterford Crystal - for the sake of a now paltry €25m. Weeks later billions were squandered on banks.

*Killing of Bin Laden

*Along with several Oil Crises. First one I remember was in 1973.

Freddie59

tHe_reD_ctrL wrote: »

what about concordes last flight?

Yep. That would be up there as well. Another tragic event caused by human error, unfortunately.

admiralofthefleet

i was on the first ever passenger service of the luas green line

sgb

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxBfrO_Cqo8 On tv Winston Churchill funeral. Perhaps history will make the visit of Queen Elizabeth 11 visit to Ireland right up there

parker kent

NothingMan wrote: »

I was there! Despite having little or no interest in football I got some of the best seats in Wembley, all free thanks to working for the sponsoring company of Portsmouth at the time!

Match was forgettable, nice pints afterwards though.

All that is wrong with modern football in one post!

Any historic event I've witnessed in person were sporting events. Ireland 1 Holland 0 being my personal choice. Wicklow winning the Tommy Murphy Cup is up there though :pac:

Not going to bother listing events I saw on TV as we've all watched the same things on TV!

Biggins

Freddie59 wrote: »

LONG LIST

Those too for me.

Jeasus - we must be old! LOL

dpe

Missed the London 7/7 bombs by about 20 minutes. Heard the IRA bomb outside the BBC in Shepherd's Bush (I lived about 1/4 of a mile away and was in bed at the time). Weirdest one was I was flying into Thailand when the Tsunami hit, and was supposed to be getting a connecting flight to Phuket. Didn't know if one of my friends was dead or alive for about 3 days (turns out he'd buggered off to Chang Mai and was in the jungle somewhere without a phone). I've been weirdly close to disaster a few times. My younger brother was even closer, walking out of the exit of King's Cross underground just when the alarms started going off for a fire that killed 40 odd people.

Latchy

I remember watching the American withdrawl from Saigon on television with the last of the huey helicoptors taken the Ambassador / staff / MP's /GI's and lucky refugees off the roof of the American Embassey out to waiting war ships at sea , while the unlucky ones outside the gates were left to wait their faith from the soon to arrive Viet Cong . This ended 12 long years of American involvement in Vietnam that cost 60,000 American deaths and millions of Vietnamese .The South Vietnamese felt the Americans had abandoned them .

Biggins

Forgot about one:

Terrorist Dominic McGlinchey been shot in a phone box in Drogheda, yards away from me while I was out walking our family pet dog.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominic_McGlinchey#Death

(His family used to live in Stameen, Drogheda and I used to know them too!)

Freddie59

Biggins wrote: »

Those too for me.

Jeasus - we must be old! LOL

At almost 52 the word 'creaking' comes to mind...........;):D

Biggins

Freddie59 wrote: »

At almost 52 the word 'creaking' comes to mind...........;):D

Speak for yourself, I still use a lot of lube!

iamstop

I think I was about 9 when my teacher came in to the class a bit sullen and announced Margret Thatcher's resigning. I remember jumping up and cheering. think I was the only one, the teacher was shocked.

Beasty

2 days after the last exam I ever took on 13 July 1985 at Wembley Stadium - still have the "Global Jukebox" T-Shirt saying "Live Aid - I was there"

Took 550 photos that day from my position about 20-30 metres from the front of the stage

Bonkers_xOx

I sat the Leaving Cert honours Maths paper 1 in 2011, you know the one the devil made? That was a first...

MightyMighty737

Bonkers_xOx wrote: »

I sat the Leaving Cert honours Maths paper 1 in 2011, you know the one the devil made? That was a first...

I sat English paper 2 on a Saturday..

im invisible

i Witnnessed, before it was Oxegen...

Latchy

I'm beginning to think OP should have put 'world wide ' in between 'historic event ' :pac:

Biggins

Latchy wrote: »

I'm beginning to think OP should have put 'world wide ' in between 'historic event ' :pac:

I'm sure that was implied.

Latchy

Biggins wrote: »

I'm sure that was implied.

It was

Donkey Oaty

I was there when Biggins replied to Latchy in what my grandchildren will know as the first assertion of the widespread 'Historical Global Implication Principle".

Ellis Dee

I was in a hotel quite close to the royal palace in Kathmandu one Friday night in early June 2001. We partied until the early hours of Saturday morning, but I still woke up at around six and, very groggy, went down to the reception to see if I could get some tea. Everyone was freaking out and I asked what was up. The clerk said: "Sir, big killing, all royal family dead!"

It was on the tip of my tongue to ask: "Where can I buy champagne?" until it hit me that he wasn't referring to that royal family, but to the local one - Nepal was a monarchy then, too. It seems the crown prince had lost his cool and killed nine of his family, then himself. It was pretty dicey for the next few days, what with a curfew and police baton charges and all, but I spent some baksheesh and got to the airport and onto a flight for Moscow, and then home.

Then, later that year, I saw the Twin Towers go down live on CNN. Makes you wonder what will happen next.

theparish

Getting a paid days holidays to reflect on the 9/11 attack while American citizens put the shoulder to the wheel at their place of work.

The Y2K bug,that was a serious party and hangover,thankfully all the beer coolers worked.

ArseBook

9/11 without a doubt, the Berlin Wall coming a close second. It's astonishing to see the world completely changing as a result of a day's events.

Obama/Queen visits were right up there for the month until I scratched my arse five minutes later. That overtook them.

Stained Class

Umm...let's see.

Saw the Pope live in the Phoenix Park in '79.

Saw an Eclipse of some sort years ago. Can't remember which one. Was too drunk.

Was at Slane in '86 to see Queen on what turned out to be part of their last world tour. (A kind of Magic).

Also, I've seen The Who live in 3 different decades!:D

wolfpawnat

Waiting for 4 hours with a 6 month old baby in Ennis, and getting to see Mohammad Ali! Seriously my partner (boxing lover) was in the front row of onlookers with our son, me right behind them. Mohammad Ali waved at my son! I only wish I was about to get that on camera, but I have loads of pics from that day for my son for when he is older. He already has a great grá for the boxing!

Paul McCartney's last concert in Ireland, who knows, hopefully it is not his last!

The introduction of the Euro!

The lockdown of Dublin for an aulde biddy!

Obama.

Da Shins Kelly

9/11, Obama's election, as well as the recent visits.

Prettyfireworks

The queens visit. I work in one of the places she visited and was one of the few who got anywhere near her. (I opened a door for her!)

oterra

Michael Jackson in Cork, Queen(of the freddie variety) in Slane, 9/11, stuttgart '88, giants stadium '94, good friday agreement, Champs League final '99(man u v Bayern Munich), Gulf wars

Karamoja

Biggins wrote: »

* 9/11
* Berlin Wall falling
* Any number of wars long since passed.
* The breakup of Czechoslovakia and former USSR
* The whole South Africa turn about.

Thats just a few off the top of my head.

How many of those were on TV?

Maldjd23

On tv it has to be 9/11

In person either Ireland vrs England at Croker playing rugby.
Or Ireland playing football when jason put the ball in the Holland net.

General General

I'm surprised that there's not one mention of the introduction of the Euro up 'til now.

Largest currency roll-out ever?

Sportswise, one that's a memory is Liverpool going 3-3 against Milan... a guy I know called Gerry sayin'; oh, there's only one team that's goin' to win this now.

Who? says I.

Gerry pipes: I haven't a f*ckin' clue.

Karamoja

General General wrote: »

I'm surprised that there's not one mention of the introduction of the Euro up 'til now.

Largest currency roll-out ever?

Yeah that was totally mind-blowing!!!!!! I remember the day before the official introduction I was literally on the edge of my seat, only one arse cheek was actually on the seat.

Do you know the way when your granny tells you about how many shillings were in a hay penny's worth of a two pence piece? And the way there was four pennies in a shilling and four hundred and sixty two shillings in a pound? Was that the most exciting thing ever or what? No.

wolfpawnat

Karamoja wrote: »

Yeah that was totally mind-blowing!!!!!! I remember the day before the official introduction I was literally on the edge of my seat, only one arse cheek was actually on the seat.

Do you know the way when your granny tells you about how many shillings were in a hay penny's worth of a two pence piece? And the way there was four pennies in a shilling and four hundred and sixty two shillings in a pound? Was that the most exciting thing ever or what? No.

A single European currency was a big thing. It is the national currency in the largest number of countries in the world and is regulated by nearly a whole Continent.