{"id":547,"date":"2023-09-13T04:35:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-13T04:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/?p=547"},"modified":"2025-09-28T00:52:02","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T00:52:02","slug":"the-343-reasons-a-town-in-ireland-has-a-911-memorial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/?p=547","title":{"rendered":"“The 343 Reasons a Town in Ireland” has a 9\/11 memorial"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Kathleen<\/a><\/p>\n

A nice article in the NY Times and some poignant photos if you hit the link.<\/p>\n

Kathleen Murphy, who grew up in Kinsale and had immigrated to New York, was working as a nurse at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan when the World Trade Center was struck. Ms. Murphy, 56 at the time, treated wounded firefighters and spent the days that followed at ground zero, trying to help in any way she could…<\/a><\/p>\n

… when she returned to her hometown for a visit shortly after the attacks, she enlisted locals and relatives to help create a memorial garden on a one-acre plot of family land in a section of town called Ringfinnan. By November 2001, a small grove had formed. On St. Patrick\u2019s Day the following year, the Ringfinnan Garden of Remembrance officially opened.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was something to stand the test of time,\u201d Mr. Murphy said. \u201cAfter the fact, after the grief surrounding the whole event, it could be something that would be left.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Murphy died in 2011, at the age of 66, after a five-year battle with ovarian cancer, which her family believes was not connected to her time spent at ground zero.<\/p>\n

Today, the young trees planted 22 years ago have grown into mature sycamores and oaks, each shading a sign that bears the name of a firefighter in bold, black print. On Monday, a group of locals \u2014 residents, town councilors, maybe a priest or two \u2014 will gather in the garden for a quiet moment of reflection.<\/p>\n

*******************<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cFor all of us here whose parents are Irish born, our D.N.A. is really from Ireland,\u201d said the Rev. Christopher Keenan, 81, a friend of Father Judge\u2019s who replaced him as a Fire Department chaplain.<\/p>\n

A firefighting tradition has continued among New York\u2019s Irish families since immigrants from Ireland began arriving in the city in large numbers in the mid-19th century. Mr. Murphy, 42, said that when he tends to the trees, making good on a promise he made to his aunt over a decade ago, he is struck by how many of the names on them are Irish: Ahearns, Boyles, Farrellys, Quinns.<\/p>\n

According to a tracker created by researchers at the University of Notre Dame<\/a>, at least 19 countries have Sept. 11 memorials, including Brazil, Italy and New Zealand.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A nice article in the NY Times and some poignant photos if you hit the link. Kathleen Murphy, who grew up in Kinsale and had immigrated to New York, was working as a nurse at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan when the World Trade Center was struck. Ms. Murphy, 56 at the time, treated wounded […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=547"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5089,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547\/revisions\/5089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}