Good and Evil in a Dublin PubRemembering 9/11 by C. C. Pecknold
9 . 12 . 16
Fifteen years ago yesterday, my friend Karl and I caught a Ryan Air flight from London Stansted to Dublin.
We arrived around noon, and made our way to Cobblestones Pub on the Northside of Dublin in Smithfield, just over the River Liffey. ...
As the only Americans in the pub, it must have seemed strange that we weren't watching TV. At some point before 2pm, someone came over to us with a kind intervention. There had just been a plane crash in New York we should see.
Like everyone else we were horrified. ...
I recall being overwhelmed with grief. We were not alone. Minutes before we were strangers, but the Irish pub-goers made us the focus of their own yearning for the Good. We didn't pay for another pint of Guinness. I don't think we paid for our lunch. This was not a day for economic exchange. On this horrific day, there would be charity, maybe not for the whole human family, but right there, in that pub, with a couple dozen people, there would be charity as we witnessed a horrific evil. ...
https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2016/09/good-and-evil-in-a-dublin-pub