As we mark the 24th anniversary of the horrific events of September 11 in the U.S., we remember the nearly 3,000 lives lost. Many Irish-Americans and Irish were among them. Some of those who died were heroes who gave their lives to save others.
Ireland grieved with America in the aftermath of that terrible day, and there are several memorials in Ireland that remain as testimony to our strong bonds and friendship and kinship.
One of most poignant is the remembrance garden overlooking Kinsale Harbor in Cork, in the downland of Ringfinnan. There are 343 trees planted, each dedicated to a fallen firefighter.
Visitors to the garden are met with a sign that says:
“We Will Never Forget. This Garden of Remembrance has been dedicated to the Loving Memory of Fr. Mychal Judge and the 343 Brave Firemen, who died so heroically in the line of duty at the Twin Towers Disaster on September 11th 2001 in New York.”
The garden was the work of a Kinsale woman who immigrated to New York, spending forty years there before her death in 2011. Kathleen Cait Murphy worked as a senior staff nurse at Lenox Hill Hospital, where she had befriended chaplain Father Michael Judge. Saddened by the loss of so many New York City firefighters, she created a memorial on her land in Kinsale, where she planned to retire.
The garden was opened in March of 2002, with a small white sign with a firefighter’s name on every tree.
Kathleen Cait Murphy died on March 29, 2011. She is herself memorialized with a plaque in the garden – an emigrant who, like so many, made a lasting contribution to her adopted country and the links between Ireland and the U.S.
Sources and further reading:
911memorial.org: Irish Memorial Honors Firefighters Lost on 9/11
Ringfinnan Garden of Remembrance Facebook page
IrishAmerica250.org 