Serene spot outside Kinsale has become a place for quiet reflection for the friends and families of Ground Zero fallen firefighters, writes Martin Steinmetz.
AT the southern bank of the River Bandon stands a grove of nearly 350 trees, lightly swaying in the wind.
Looking from a distance you might be forgiven for thinking they were anything other than trees.
But this serene spot outside Kinsale has become a significant place for quiet reflection and commemoration for the friends and families of the firefighters who lost their lives on 9/11.
Every year, the FDNY 9/11 Garden of Remembrance in Ringfinnan hosts a ceremony to honour the fallen firefighters of New York, many of them of Irish heritage.
One of this year’s special ceremony guests was a firefighter who risked his life in the 9/11 rescue efforts.
Danny Manning is a still youthful-looking retiree with a white moustache.
As a young man in 1979, he joined the New York Fire Department, first battling blazes in Brooklyn on Engine 257 before he transferred to Ladder 43 in Spanish Harlem – also known as El Barrio’s Bravest.
The most memorable day in the career of the first generation Irish-American came on September 11th 2001, when two planes crashed into the Twin Towers in Manhattan just before 9am.
Danny was not far from the scene, at home with his wife Mary Allen and their children Daniel and Megan.
Both Danny and his wife were off-duty that day. And Mary Allen had a lucky escape; on her normal work days she was based at the United Airlines office in one of the Twin Towers.
Danny, who has family in Kinsale and Dunmanway, as well as in Kerry, said: ‘It was a beautiful blue-sky day.
My wife was watching TV and I heard her screech.
‘We thought at first that it was a small plane that went astray, went out of control, until we saw the second plane hit the tower on TV. I just got up and left the room at that point.’
Danny didn’t hesitate to make his way to the scene, just a couple of blocks from his family home. Before grabbing his FDNY coat, he said to his wife he believed this was no longer an accident and that they would need everybody they could at the scene.
Danny said: ‘So I got dressed and went down to the highway and flagged down one of the emergency cars going down the road, which was right outside our apartment. And we headed down to the towers. And that beautiful day turned into a tragic day.’
New York firefighters standing in the rain at a ceremony in the 911 Garden of Remembrance at Ringfinnan, Kinsale.
Eerie silence
What was strange about the devastating scene Danny Manning found at Ground Zero was an eerie silence.
‘Then all of a sudden you heard some alarms and some screeching. Papers flying through the air. The debris was down and there was just one big cloud of dust throughout Manhattan,’ he said of the disaster scene.
By chance, Danny managed to avoid the falling debris after diving under a truck. But some of his colleagues were not as lucky and gave their lives on 9/11, since then being remembered in the FDNY 9/11 Garden of Remembrance in Ringfinnan, Kinsale.
The garden was started by nurse Kathleen Cáit Murphy who worked at Lennox Hill Hospital in Manhattan, where she looked after many of the NYFD fire personnel throughout her 40-year career.
Danny, who was also a trade unionist for many years, said of Kathleen Cáit: ‘She was a woman who deeply cared about helping people. After 9/11 she decided to plant 343 trees in her garden right outside Kinsale. On each tree is the name of a firefighter who died that day and the company he was in. It was her vision and she wanted to memorialise the people she served.’
Danny revealed he was very touched and deeply moved by the memorial efforts in Kinsale, especially since 409 of his NYFD colleagues had died from illnesses and conditions originating back to 9/11. And 60 of the fire personnel who gave their lives on 9/11 were off-duty.
In an interview with Oliver Callan on RTÉ Radio he said: ‘The people of New York have not forgotten, so haven’t the people of Ireland. We thank you very much for all your remembrance.’
This year’s 9/11 ceremony at Rinfinnan was especially poignant and moving. Also because the NYFD presented a piece of steel from the ruins of the Twin Towers.
The event was attended by firefighters from both New York and Ireland, including some who directly responded to the attacks.
A charity cycle from Dublin to Kinsale also formed part of the commemoration, raising funds for firefighters’ mental health services and children with cancer.
Guests at the ceremony included TDs Christopher O’Sullivan and Michael Collins, Senator Tim Lombard, and local councillors.
Cork city mayor, Cllr Dan Boyle, and Gillian Coughlan (Fianna Fáil) and Marie O’Sullivan (Fine Gael) also took part in the memorial event.
The memorial in the garden honouring the 343 firefighters who died at the World Trade Centre.
Place of solemn reflection
Located on the southern side of the River Bandon, the memorial garden consists of a variety of trees including oak, ash, birch, crab apple, hawthorn, willow and Scots pine. The garden also features other varieties like sycamore, magnolia, eucalyptus, plum, weeping pear and Lawson cypress.
Each tree in the garden bears a small white plaque with the name of a fallen firefighter and is accompanied by a miniature of the Star-Spangled Banner.
Adjacent to the grove stands a stone pillar topped with an iron replica of the FDNY badge, featuring the number 343 at its center. Kathleen Cáit Murphy, who courageously battled cancer, passed away on March 29th 2011, and was honoured with a plaque that was added to the memorial.
Kathleen’s second cousin and local solicitor, Virgil Horgan, told The Southern Star at the time she lost her battle against cancer: ‘Early on, when the garden first opened, we were contacted by Paddy Gray from Kilkenny, the grandfather of Jimmy Gray (34), who was one of the firefighters who died that day.
‘Most of the firefighters had Irish connections and Paddy told us that the garden, with a tree named for his grandson, had given him a sense of peace and a place to visit and remember Jimmy,’ he explained.
Among the trees in the garden stands one dedicated to Father Mychal Judge, a popular humanitarian, chaplain to the FDNY and gay activist. Born to Irish immigrant parents from County Leitrim, Fr Judge spent his youth shining shoes outside Manhattan’s Penn Station before pursuing his calling with the Franciscans.
Ordained in 1961, he served communities across Boston, the Bronx, New Jersey and eventually Manhattan. Known for his quiet compassion, he was a champion for marginalized groups including drug addicts, the homeless and AIDS victims.
In 1992, he became the FDNY chaplain, often arriving first at emergencies alongside firefighters. On September 11th 2001, he was among the first responders to the Twin Towers attacks and tragically one of the first lives lost that day.
