September 11, 2001, in The Nationalist newsroom
Cappawhite community plunged into mourning after the Twin Towers terror attack
The 9/11 horror is one of those moments in history that you will forever remember where you were when it happened.
The horrific news from New York broke as staff at The Nationalist offices in Queen Street were returning to work from lunch at 2pm. Staff gathered around the screens in shock as the magnitude of the terrorist attack was impossible to take on board. Given the scale of the attack on the Twin Towers in a city with such deep-rooted Irish connections, it was inevitable that Irish people were among those who lost their lives or were escaping from the Twin Towers inferno.
In the newsroom, journalists were tasked with trying to find out if Tipperary people had been in the Twin Towers when the two planes crashed into the iconic structures. It soon became clear that indeed Tipperary people were among the victims of the attack as the small village of Cappawhite was plunged into mourning.
“Terror from the skies” was the headline that appeared on the front page of The Nationalist as it carried the pictures of Cappawhite man Martin Coughlan, who was reported missing after the attack, and eyewitness Kieran Quinn. The two men were Cappawhite neighbours. 53-year-old Martin Coughlan was a carpenter who was on the 96th floor when the plane struck, while Kieran Quinn, who witnessed both planes crashing into the towers, was running for his life with bodies and a mass of debris falling all around him.
Martin Coughlan had made it down to the 86th floor when he rang his wife to tell her “Something terrible has happened,” and he was never seen again.
“Never, never in your worst nightmare could you imagine what I saw,” said Kieran Quinn, a twenty-three-year-old stockbroker who grew up close to the Coughlan family pub in Cappawhite.
Cappawhite was in mourning as the community rallied to support the Coughlan family, who attended a special Mass in the village and people queued up to sign a Book of Condolence.
Later that month, members of the Coughlan family travelled to New York for the requiem Mass for Martin Coughlan.
Among the celebrants was Fr Tom Flynn, a native of Thurles who comforted the Coughlan family and the other Irish families who lost loved ones in the attack.