'It was frightening' - Mayo man remembers witnessing 9/11 attacks

9/11/2001 is the date that changed our world forever. When two planes controlled by terrorists were steered into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, Westport man Piaras Ó Raghallaigh was on his way to work in Manhattan. He got a call from his boss, telling him to change for the WTC.

The subway stopped one station short, and when Piaras walked over, he couldn't believe his eyes. What happened in the following hours has never left him and will stay with him forever.

“It's very, very hard to reflect on it. Because I was there, I went into journalistic mode and worked as a media person, and I avoided dealing with the emotions at the time. I worked 24-7 for a full month, day and night. There were restrictions on getting in journalists and broadcasters because of the air constrictions and all the different security controls. So, because I was on the ground, I was able to get access. I was needed by a lot of the international media organisations.”

Piaras reported for networks around the world, BBC Australia, RTÉ and newspapers. Looking back now, even 25 years later, it's incredibly hard for him to process what happened.

“I'm very lucky to be alive today. I was very close to the towers when they fell down. I saw the second plane going into the building, and I was two blocks away from the towers when both of them fell. I had my camera with me that day.”

There was police officers, firefighters, all there, and Piaras was able to get through the barriers because he had his media accreditation. He ended up two blocks away from it with a number of other journalists and media personnel when the tower fell down.

“It was frightening. It was absolutely shocking to see what happened and to witness people jumping out of windows, people coming out very injured. I witnessed Father Michael Judge from Leitrim, being taken away by the firefighters.”

Fr Judge was chaplain to the New York firefighters. Ó Raghallaigh wrote about what happened to him in The Mayo News, on September 19, 2001, only days after: “Fr Judge passed on my left. He was one of the first to slip past the blue police 'No Entry' sign. New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani was also there. He wished the rescue crews and the brave priest well as they passed. ‘Take care, lads’, he said and then rushed back up the dust covered streets.

“I also turned away. After all, my life was more important than bylines. Wheeling to the right a crashing, burning sound filled the air. The World Trade Center Tower1 had smashed to the ground. A wailing cry filled the air; lives were lost and, as if God himself was watching, the skies turned black.”

Then minutes later, Ó Raghallaigh saw Fr Judge in action, whispering an act of contrition into an injured firefighter's ear. But, “seconds later he was hit by swirling flying steel that crushed his slight frame. His big Irish hands and burly smile no longer ministered,” Ó Raghallaigh wrote back then.

But now, 25 years later, he hasn't spoken much about all this.

“I have still two reams of film that I shot on that day on my camera that I haven't developed, and I don't think I will be ever able to develop, because I think it would relive all those horrific images and emotions, sadness and fear that I witnessed and that thousands of people witnessed as well.”

Ó Raghallaigh's partner at the time, now wife, was at home in their apartment in Woodlawn. All communications were cut down and not available. So he wasn't able to contact her until 10pm that night.

His mother-in-law and father-in-law were in New York at the time. They were over visiting the couple. And two days before that, they had gone together on a helicopter trip around the Twin Towers.

“That easily could have been on that subway that had stopped under the World Trade Centre that day, and I wouldn't be here today talking to you. In the aftermath, I found out that a lot of the people that were standing and working beside me didn't make it. I met a lot of people afterwards who had lost their daughters and sons in the building. It's something that I will have to deal with for the rest of my life,” Ó Raghallaigh reflects.

He describes it himself as a place one wouldn't want to be in.

“I was down right beside the rubble where the towers had fallen and I could hear, you know, mobile phones ringing inside in the rubble. And I was just thinking of the people that were trapped inside. I was thinking of their families. I was thinking of their relations. And it was harrowing to hear those noises.”

Ó Raghallaigh came home that night, at one o'clock. His partner and her parents were crying when he came through the door. They just hugged him for an hour, because they thought he was gone also.

“I think, as a journalist, you always want to get the top story, you always want to be in the right place. And unfortunately, I was in the wrong place at the right time.”

9/11 changed the couple's life forever. Shortly after they left New York. The heart of the city had been ripped out of them, they didn't feel safe anymore.

There were soldiers on every corner with guns. The sense of security, the sense of vibrancy, the sense of love that was in New York and happiness that had all gone and changed. The sense of fear and worry and concern around every corner.

“And we had a very happy life in New York at the time. We had our own apartment. We had a car. We could see our future there. We had no plans to leave. And all of a sudden, that was all drastically changed on that morning.”

To this day, Ó Raghallaigh still believes it's the best city that he's ever visited in the world. And he still has a huge connection to the city and to the people. But he always thinks of the people that lost their loved ones and the devastation that it caused that day.

“I think 9/11 is the worst news story that ever happened in the world. I think that love will always overcome evil. The resilience that the people of New York and the Irish community living there showed, is unbelievable. We can't underestimate the importance of community. And I think those are the things that have stood to the people of New York and people of America, and in particular the Irish community in America. I think that bond of, we're not going to be defeated, we're going to rise again, is so important in so many ways.”

The fact, that 25 years on, New York is a safe, wonderful place to visit gives Ó Raghallaigh great hope that there is a lot more good than evil in the world.