‘I thought bombs were just fireworks’

Fintan O’Hara was just seconds past the finishing line of the Boston Marathon when the first of the bomb blasts went off.

The Dubliner, 35, was running as part of a team from the Royal College of Surgeons (RCSI) and had just finished the race when the first of two explosions brought chaos to the city.

“I was literally about 50m across the finish line, getting some water from a volunteer, when the first bomb went off. I was facing the opposite way to the blast and I thought it was fireworks or something like that but when I turned to look at it I could see the smoke rising from the building.

“All you could hear was glass coming down everywhere. About 10 seconds later, the second blast went off. At that point I knew something was very wrong.”

Fintan said the atmosphere immediately after the blasts was “surreal” as people carried on as normal, not realising the enormity of what had happened.

“It was just very surreal, very weird. People kept running past the finish line and volunteers kept doing what they were doing, handing out water. Once I had realised what was happening, my first thought was for the people I had travelled over with from the RCSI. They were in the grandstand but thankfully were all OK,” he said.

Fintan said that, although the aftermath of the blasts was chaotic, the emergency services were “phenomenal” in dealing with such a large number of people.

“I don’t know how they reacted so quickly. It was phenomenal. There was a huge amount of police and medical people on the route anyway but by the time we had gone one block, they were already clearing the streets of people and ambulances were rushing in to the finish line.”

Mr O’Hara said Bostonians were already looking to bring a sense of normality back to the city. “I woke early today and went out for a walk and did the normal stuff that people do. It could be any other day. People are trying to get back to normal and get on with their lives. There is a heavy police presence and helicopters overhead but people are trying to get on with their lives.”

Speaking to RTÉ radio, Joe Dunne, the owner of McGann’s bar, was standing outside his pub near the finish line when the bombs went off.

“The streets, the sidewalks, the paths were full of people and spectators. I just heard a big bang first. I said: ‘Jesus Christ, what the hell was that?’ And then five seconds later I looked down the street, another big bang and another puff of smoke about 200 yards down the street from where we were standing. With that, everybody started running towards us, people were crying and just bedlam broke out,” he said.