DarrenByrne.com

It’s a topic that will always come up at this time each year and I wanted to share my 9/11 memory.

I was working in a phone shop in Dublin city centre at the time. It was Tuesday afternoon and, at a time when we would generally be quite busy, the shop was virtually empty. We were prepared for the usual lunchtime onslaught, but it didn’t come.

We, a group of about 8 people, gathered around the big couch in the middle of the showroom and began watching a Batman DVD on the big screen television (not plasma). At last someone got a text message saying a plane had just crashed into the World Trade Centre. We excitedly (yes, excitedly – at this moment it didn’t seem serious at all) paused the DVD and turned over to the news. The reporter was talking about the plane ‘accident’ and replaying the moment the first plane impacted. We were riveted, when suddenly the footage went live and we watched the second plane crash through. I remember everyone around me gasping and one of the girls I worked with screaming.

I, however, just stared. It didn’t seem real. Even as the building came smashing down, even as I saw people falling to their deaths, it just felt like I was watching a film. Part of me thought, “hey, that’s done well”. It was a bizarre feeling and I think it was only when I went to New York and visited Ground Zero that it actually sunk in – the huge loss of life and the impact it had on everyone across America and the world. Someone on the radio this morning said it annoyed her that the millions who have died in war torn countries across the world are basically ignored, while the 3,000 dead at the World Trade Centre disaster will be remembered forever.

I don’t believe that we have placed any special attachment to those who died on September 9th 2001 – it’s just we saw it happen, we watched it live, we were a part of this event as it unfolded. Everyone has their 9/11 story. What’s yours?