This photograph was taken of Liz Tinneny O'Shea and her husband Dennis in their sailboat as
it passed the World Trade Center towers shortly after they were built. Liz is the daughter of the late Philip Tinneny of Carrigallen, Co. Leitrem, Ireland and New York.
This section of the website was added on September 11, 2002, for the purpose of providing Tinneny
descendants and their spouses who visit our family history site an opportunity
to document where they were, how they learned of the event, their feelings and
or anything else associated with the historically significant events of
9/11/01. Feel free to be as brief or as detailed as you wish.
To
add your comments please click
here. God Bless the
heroes, the victims and their families and God Bless America.
I am the wife of Hubert
Tinneny and we live in Quivvy, Belturbet, Co. Cavan, Ireland. On 9/11
I was in the town of Cavan with Rich and Lee Tinneny who were doing
some shopping during their visit with us from America. Once they
had completed their shopping, we had intended to go and visit another
cousin, Mary McGarvey, in Red Hills. I went one way to do some
shopping while they separated looking for gifts to bring back home.
I joined up with Rich on the corner of Ashe Street and that is
when he told me about the planes crashing into the Twin Towers. It
took me a few minutes to take in what he had said. We then met up with
Lee. I felt that the world would never be the same again and I
was downhearted.
We headed home to Quivvy - no longer in the mood to visit family.
When we arrived home the phone was ringing from America for Rich
and Lee with a request that they come home as family felt they needed
them on this terrible occasion. Then my niece Susan Lavery
called from Co. Monaghan and my daughter Fidelma called from England
both realizing the sad effect this had on us all and on America.
We watched the telly, nobody in a hurry to eat. Ireland came to
a standstill on that Friday (the 14th) to pray for all who died and to
give courage to the living to do their best to overcome violence. This
year (2002) we are all asked to spend one minute in prayer in memory
of the dead.who died on 9/11. God Bless Family and Friends and
God Bless America.
Susanna Tinneny
Quivvy
Belturbet
Co. Cavan, Ireland
Sept
11, 2001. I walked into school at Incarnation of Our Lord in Olney. I am
a teacher there. The slogan of our school, due to the variety of
cultural backgrounds is "Where The World Meets." It was 8:45
a.m.. The television was on in the office. I thought a weird
television show or commercial was on the screen! I saw the word
"LIVE"...but remember thinking...No, no way. I called my
husband Rich on my cell phone, thinking he would confirm my disbelief...this
could not be real. Rich works at Police headquarters in Philadelphia.
It was all real...
While on the phone the second jet flew into
Tower Two. Oh my God! It hit my heart and mind that what I was
seeing was real! I felt as if I was going to throw up. Richie said
that he did not know exactly what was happening but that something had blown
up at the Pentagon as well. We ended the call...confused, sad, sick!
By 10:30 parents began calling and
arriving at school, to be with, and, to take their children home. I
wanted to be with my four daughters and Richie. I had never felt fear
like this. Our eldest daughter Ashley was in center city Philadelphia.
I had begun hearing that the city had shut down and began to fear that I would
not be able to get to her or get her home safely. I called Richie again.
Police headquarters was on lock down, he is essential personal and would not
be permitted to leave. Rich did not know when he would be home. I
remember crying as I tried to call Ashley. Cell phone transmissions shut
down due to the overwhelming number of calls. I could not get her!
I left school and headed for my daughter
Devon's school which is normally eight minutes from my school. En-route
I did get a partial call from our friend Michael Fitzpatrick...he would pick
up our two youngest daughters Annie and Mollie and bring them to our home.
The phone went dead......It took me a half an hour to get to Devon's school.
I remember crying as I drove. I remember looking into the faces of
people in traffic that day....it seememd everyone was crying: men, women
and children. When I got to Devon I remember hugging her. I
remember not wanting to let go.
When I got home all four of our daughters
were there. We are the blessed ones and we know it clearly. We
will never forget. Our hearts as a family go out to those who have lost
life itself. It is all such a gift....
click
here to view photographs.
Donna
Marie (Tinneny) Persico, Philadelphia. 9/12/2001
9/11/01
I will begin the story of Sept. 11
with what I was doing Sept. 10.
It was the Monday after Labor Day, and we were enjoying a most beautiful
summer. On only a few days did we break 95 degrees. Otherwise, the season was
magnificent and memorable. However, Monday was humid and the evening brought
rain, hard rain. The sounds of summer innocence remained crickets chirping and
our neighbors' children playing amidst the showers.
It was the first full weekend of preparing my sportsgenius.com football
forecasts, and I was working hard while listening to the Giants-Broncos Monday
Night game through the AM static (I made a vow not to listen to the annoying
Dennis Miller that 2001 NFL season). The broadcast from Denver included former
Giant Dick Lynch on the color commentary. Ironically, his son Richard was one
of those murdered in the World Trade Center North Tower.
I finished my preparation for the coming morning, and watched the end of the
football game, going immediately to bed afterwards. Those were the first hours
of a day we would never forget.
Tuesday morning, Sept. 11 was perfect. The sky was a cloudless crystal blue,
and the air was crisp. Autumn was in the air, and evidence of the previous
day's rain was gone. I'm an early riser every Tuesday during football season,
as I update Paul T. Graham Football League stats and write copy for my
sportsgenius.com game forecasts before my "real" workday begins.
Thus, I was awake with the sun shortly before 6 a.m. Lack of sleep was
overcome by the sheer beauty of the day.
While the world was changing in the skies above, I was writing about games
that never would be played and a reality that never would be ours. At 8:34, 12
minutes before the first plane struck the WTC, my work was complete. I began
the day with a feeling of relief, satisfaction, and anticipation. We were
rolling out a series of new variable portfolios, and our first organizational
meeting was at 1 p.m. It's fun to learn something new.
I was preparing some information and attending to my emails when I heard a
couple of the late arrivals speaking of a plane hitting a tower. This was
about 9 a.m. I didn't know which tower or what type of plane, because I was
half-listening. Then a few moments later I heard about a second plane hitting
a tower probably about 5 minutes later. I was still busy with my work, but a
few minutes later I heard that it was the World Trade Center and I immediately
thought of 1993. I had heard about that bombing at work, too and I thought
right away that this wasn't a pair of accidents, but I prayed that they were.
Minutes later, I walked over to the bank of TVs we had on our floor, near the
ING VA Sales Desk. Folks were huddled around them en masse, with but a single
shot of the two mighty towers gashed and burning. My first thought was those
scars will be there forever, no matter how well they're rebuilt. It's amazing
how different our sense of tragedy and importance was before Sept. 11.
At about 9:28, President Bush spoke and declared that the attacks likely were
the work of terrorists. I thought immediately of Osama bin Laden and his
murderous gang of extremists. Moments later, the brief speech was complete and
the coverage returned to the burning buildings, but from such a distance that
the human scope of the tragedy was invisible. The Twin Towers were modern
structures with tinted windows, so there was no sense of how many people were
in the buildings or how deep within the Towers the fire was.
One of the TV talking heads made a comment about the whole thing being
reminiscent of a movie entitled "The Towering Inferno". We groaned.
News then came that hundreds of planes were in the air, and were being
grounded by the FAA. Seconds later, we learned a plane had crashed into the
Pentagon. Again, there was no sense of the human tragedy there, as you never
imagine people actually working in that limited-windowed structure.
I tried to call Jessica without success at her office, as busy signals were
the norm. Same for Mom at her office. I reached Dad at home, and asked him if
he ever thought he'd live to see a day like this. He said no, and he'd lived
through Pearl Harbor. Ironically, I had been reading a book about Pearl Harbor
on my last train trip to and from New York, in May 2001. It was a riveting
book, but not as captivating as the perfect New York skyline, which always
attracted my eyes out windows on every car and train trip. They especially
were mesmerizing on that beautiful May 30 day, a clear jewel every bit as
perfect as the beginning of Sept. 11.
Back to the Towers, and as the long-range camera panned away from the
buildings, the incomprehensible happened. You almost had to rub your eyes in
disbelief and say, "did I really just see one of the buildings
disappear?" It had, but again, there was no concept of firemen,
policemen, and office workers being in those once-mighty edifices.
In numbed disbelief, I returned again to my office to hear that my
sister-in-law was missing. She often worked in Lower Manhattan, and we
couldn't reach her cell phone. Three hours after the first plane hit, we
tracked her down in the Bronx, but my business contacts at Salomon Brothers
weren't so lucky. They lost their building, 7 WTC, before the end of the day.
My contact at Capital Guardian, Jordan Wallens, lost something even more
important, his older brother Blake.
Just minutes later, we heard that a plane crashed in Pittsburgh. The world was
coming apart, and we were powerless to stop it. The Limerick nuclear plant was
about 15 miles from us, and certainly within feasibility as a target. I
finally reached Jess and Mom, and learned they were on their respective ways
home. All of my most important people were safe, and I was reasonably safe in
the rolling hills of West Whiteland Township, Chester County, near major
highways going in all directions, if necessary.
We halfheartedly tried to work and check on friends at the same time, Paul's
brother Chris worked in the Trade Center and was the last one to say goodbye
to Paul, with a Phillies' cap. Chris fortunately was safe, but unfortunately
witnessed the first plane hitting the Towers from his car. He survived the '93
bombing, and on this day was late for work.
The company announced that we could leave at noon, and I hung around trying to
get work done around 1:30. Upon exiting the building, the first thing I
noticed was the perfect blue skies still were perfect and blue, despite all of
the horrors that occurred there that morning. Ominously and yet reassuringly,
no planes were in the sky. I would take a lunchtime stroll the following day,
and the sky would be just as blue, and just as ominously quiet. No planes flew
for the remainder of the week. The remainder of the Fall saw the weather
continue to be gorgeous, and the temperatures mild well into December.
Reassuringly, my trip to the ATM to get cash was a breeze. My trips to the
supermarket to load up on basics ended up being reassuringly unnecessary, but
the extra food made for a nice donation to the many Sept. 11 funds that were
organized in the days after the murders. Life ended up not being all that
different in some ways. America remained the greatest country on earth, but
the fires of evil turned us into the ultimate melting pot. Three months later,
folks still are unwilling to honk their horns in traffic, most people display
American flags everywhere proudly, and patriotism once again is acceptable
behavior.
The forces that brought such pain to us Sept. 11 can wound us, but no one can
deny the strength of the American spirit.
James J. Tinneny IV,
Philadelphia. 9/12/02
I'm
13 now...I was twelve at the time of the 9-11 events...you may not
think a twelve year old can have as many feelings as an adult has but
they can..but they do.
I was in school..it was a regular day..switching from class to
class...talking to your friends in the hallway...and so on and so on.
I was sitting in math class..learning about a very boring thing when
another teacher came into my class and said something to my
teacher..then out loud she told us what had happened....New York has
been attacked....right away we put on the t.v. and started watching
the events of the morning in horror...I was stunned...I didn't know
anyone could ever attack the U.S...I thought we were so strong!..that
shows how much a 12 year old knows!..."ding" ,over the loud
speaker came our principles voice...New Yorks World TrAde Centers have
been attacked as well as The Pentagon in Washington D.C....I do not
want the children watching these events on televisoin. We were all
really upset..we wanted to know what was going on in the country...OUR
country...but being the rule following person that he was our teacher
turned it off....everybody was talking about it..all over the school.
did you hear about the attacks...blah blah blah...lunch time came...we
were told we would get an early dismissal...my name was called..I got
my things from upstairs and left with my sister and the family friend
that picked me up..I sat at home stunned in the chair..I turned on the
t.v and once again watched in horror...my mom and older sisters
came home...everyone was so upset...for the next to weeks the news was
on...everything was about the World Trade Centers, The Pentagon, The
Heros of The Airplans, The People who Died, The Fireman and Polica
Officers.
now I know...it doesnt matter how strong the country itself is..it
matters how strong the people are..and we..the people of America have
shown an amazing amount of strength.
ann marie persico 9/11/01
For quite a few years, we spent our vacations on
sailboats and then a trawler. We always travelled south on the Hudson
River and naturally past lower Manhatten. This particular year we
travelled with another couple who saw an opportunity to make our mast
look very tall with the World Trade Center towers in the background.
We had a few laughs over that, but in September of 2001 it all came
back, and I remembered we had that picture. So I enlarged it and put
it in a frame in our living room. It still brings people to a
standstill if they haven't seen it before. Thanks for letting me share
this with others.
Liz & Dennis O'Shea 9/11/2002
I was in a jewelry store in Cavan Town, County
Cavan, Ireland when the jeweler came from the back room with a cell
phone in his hand and said "Your World Trade Centers have been
attacked and one has fallen." I immediately crossed the
street to the Farnham Hotel and watched the second tower fall live on
CNN. It was totally unbelievable and remained so until while
flying back home on September 17th we flew past New York City at
35000 feet and saw the massive cloud of smoke raising from the site.
On Friday, September 14th, Ireland declared a national day of mourning
and remembrance for those who effected by the events in new York,
Shanksville and at the Pentagon. The entire country literally
shut down -- even the Pubs closed which very, very rarely ever
happens. All the churches in Ireland, from the smallest villages
to the major cities had Masses and church services that day. As
we drove to the 3 o'clock Mass in Belturbet the streets were vacant
except for the many people walking and driving to the overflowing
memorial Mass at the church of Anagh. So many people, strangers,
acquaintances, family members even strangers on the street, offered
Lee and I condolences requesting that we pass them on to those in
America when we returned. I conclude this note as I listen
to the radio broadcast of the first anniversary of the events - it
still seems "unbelievable".
Rich Tinneny
Columbia, SC 9/11/2002
