Remembrance

     This month, the world is turning its attention to America, to New York  especially. It is the 10th anniversary of the tragedy that was 9/11, when terrorists flew planes into the both of the Twin Towers, another into the Pentagon, and a fourth was tragically brought to an end when the passengers on board the flight fought to take control. Thousands lost their lives, thousands more were injured, scared and tramatised. Millions morned, billions watched. 

     Many of us probably still remember what we were doing that day, when the news first broke that a plane had flown straight into one of the towers. I remember walking down my stairs, just your average eighteen year old, days away from starting back in college after the summer break, a I turned the tv o and saw the news. I stood there looking at the tv thinking, "my god!" when all of a sudden the live footage was showing a second plane flying into the other tower. My sister was in the house with her ex. We sat and watched the horror unfold; people jumping from windows, fires blazing and the plumes as the towers collapsed, thousands, trapped, injured and dying. I doubt I was the only person who, days and weeks after the events, though we were going to see another world war. I feared it. In the last decade, many more innocent lives have been lost in the war on terrorism. How many more still will?

     This month, is not just the anniversary of 9/11. It is also a decade on since the Holy Cross dispute in Northern Ireland, a dispute that, originally sparked in the June, saw innocent school children from Ardoyne, Belfast, caught up in sectarian and civil disturbances. Regardless of what religion they were, these were just innocent primary school children, and the protests and subsequant ripple effect disturbances, violence and attacks directed at school children across Belfast, was heartbreaking and disturbing for those of us that view it from a distance. 

     Both of these had left a very bitter taste in my mouth, and I looked at the world that I was living in, the fear, the hate, the corruption, and I had to write. 

     So, while sitting in my Irish Literature class, on the 2nd of October 2001, I did just that. 

    

REMEMBRANCE

Life so sad and lonely
Full of death an destruction,
Quite close to home, and only
Peace of mind is in construction.

With great fears of sudden loss,
And sudden loss revealed,
With only happiness to toss,
The fate of the world is sealed.

Two towers that stood grand and tall,
Two gliding birds crash into a floor.
Thousands die beneath its fall
And bring the world into a war.

School kids mocked, teased and jeered,
Segregation within their neighbourhood,
In twenty years we may hear they've cheered
A saddened cry against a loss of childhood.

Corruption is nothing but the beginning,
Destruction middle, loss the end.
And with a band of heralds singing,
God his Angels shall he send.

Niamh Anne king 02/oct/01