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Posted by Bowser on September 16, 2001 at 00:41:01: In Reply to: Washington posted by MM on September 16, 2001 at 00:16:57: Scary stuff MM. Not much work done here this week in Castlebar I reckon. Televisions and radios brought into workplaces all over town. I heard that supermarkets in Dublin even had newsfeeds running over the checkout counters. We fell asleep watching television and listening to radio into the small hours especially Tuesday and Wednesday nights. (I reckon everyone had a quiet weep or at least wiped away a tear or two at some point). Everyone you met on the streets stopped to talk about someone they knew who escaped (thank goodness virtually every story was about someone they knew of who got out of the WTC). I think Friday's national day of mourning here, bringing everything to a standstill for a day, was a good idea in the long term as it may help in some small way to grieve here, where there is little else we can do. I know the American reaction may have been that we won't let the bastards grind us down or change or way of life so we'll keep on working - keep the markets open, etc. Different responses to the same event and the kind of reaction you see all the time when people are faced with a death in the family - you know some of us try to keep busy with organising the funeral arrangements, making tea for the sympathisers calling, etc., and probably grieve later or bottle it up - while others prefer to grieve immediately and gradually pull themselves together with time. Hopefully, Ireland's response will provide some solace - the new American Ambassador seemed to be genuinely amazed last night on the Late Late Show. We'll go back to work on Monday in a new and more dangerous world but we'll all certainly remember where we were at about 2pm last Tuesday.
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