No retaliation, pleads bereaved Cork family

The Cork family of two of the victims of the attacks on New York said talk of retaliation and the killing of innocent civilians in Afghanistan is wrong.

Speaking on a special Late Late Show to mark the atrocity, Ruth McCourt’s brothers John and Mark said not a single innocent life should be lost in reprisal for the huge loss of life suffered on Tuesday.

Ruth and her four-year-old daughter, Juliana were passengers aboard one of the planes hijacked in Boston, which crashed into the World Trade Centre.

John and Mark Clifford said the family was broken hearted over the loss of their sister and baby niece but that revenge and retaliation would do nothing except to inflict misery and death on innocent civilians in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

No other child should be made suffer, they said. Instead of threatening war and retaliation on other nations, the US authorities should concentrate on bringing those responsible for Tuesday’s atrocity to justice.

In a dignified but emotional plea for an end to killing, John Clifford said: ‘Justice should be seen to be done.’