Cork family’s 9/11 grief will never fade

Cork-born Ruth Clifford McCourt was taking four-year-old daughter Juliana on a holiday to Disneyland on September 11, 2001, when their flight was hijacked, writes Pádraig Hoare

Ruth, originally from Ballintemple and living in the US, was surprising four-year-old Juliana with a trip to Disneyland in California on the fateful day when they boarded United Airlines 175 at Logan Airport in Boston. Photo: Evening Echo

In an area of St Finbarr’s Cemetery in Cork, an Irish-American family lies in eternal peace.

Ruth Clifford McCourt and daughter Juliana both died on September 11, 2001. Husband and father David McCourt died in 2013.

Their resting place is a picture of dignity and grace, growing ever more important to their extended loved ones with each passing year. For the Clifford family and friends, the memories of Ruth, Juliana, and David will never be extinguished.

The Clifford family is determined that younger members of their clan will get to know Ruth, Juliana, and David as they were — full of life and love.

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The manner of Ruth and Juliana’s untimely death, on September 11, 2001, may lie in the annals of infamy, when barbarism in the name of political and religious aims reverberated around the world, but it does not define the lives of mother and daughter, according to the Cliffords.

Ruth, originally from Ballintemple and living in the US, was surprising four-year-old Juliana with a trip to Disneyland in California on the fateful day when they boarded United Airlines 175 at Logan Airport in Boston.

Instead of going to Los Angeles, terrorists hijacked the plane and flew it into the South Tower of the World Trade Center, the second of two to strike the Twin Towers.

Ruth’s friend, Paige Farley Hackel, who was to meet them for the Disneyland trip, boarded American Airlines 11, which struck the North Tower.

Ruth Clifford McCourt (right) with her daughter Juliana and her best friend, Paige Farley Hackel who was on American Airlines 11, which struck the North Tower.

Juliana was one of eight children murdered by 19 terrorists in the co-ordinated aeroplane attacks that crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington DC.

Another hijacked plane went down in a field in Pennsylvania when passengers fought back against the terrorists and averted another terror attack on a land target, saving potentially hundreds of lives with their heroic actions.

Ruth and Juliana were among 2,996 people killed in New York, Washington DC and Pennsylvania. There were 6,000 injured in the events that shook the US to its core.

RUTH’S brother, Ron Clifford, living in New Jersey, survived the attack on the World Trade Center, having gone to the Twin Towers for a meeting that day. He was in the foyer when the plane carrying Ruth and Juliana crashed into the building.

In recent years, Ruth and Juliana returned to St Finbarr’s Cemetery in Cork to their eternal home, to be joined eventually by David, who died in 2013.

For Ruth’s other brother, Mark Clifford, the memories of Ruth, Juliana, and David grow stronger every year, as younger members of the Clifford family learn more about them.

“For the 20th anniversary of September 11, 2001, we choose to honour and celebrate Ruth and Juliana’s lives. We have a place to go to do that, in a dignified manner and, after David’s passing in 2013, the whole little family is together forever.

Ruth Clifford McCourt's brother, Ron Clifford, who survived the attack on the Twin Towers. Picture: Jargen Frank

“Juliana would be 24 now. Who knows what she would have been doing with her life? She would have been coming to Ireland to visit her cousins, doing things that young women do, full of life and possibility and wonder, but that was taken from her in an act that we can never comprehend.”

THE resting place in Cork is symbolic, according to Mark.

“The mother and child is sacred, Madonna-like, symbolic of what life is and should be. One of our most beautiful pictures is of Ruth, smiling and in the prime of her life, deliriously happy with babe in arms. They are now together forever, along with David, at peace. It is of great comfort to our family, especially those who come to visit and pay respect.

“People have been wonderful since the day it happened. I have come to realise that there is no monopoly on grief. There are thousands of families affected by September 11, who share similar stories in relation to their fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters, as well as families affected by conflicts and acts of terror around the world.”

Mark, like other family members as well as thousands across the Atlantic, has channelled his grief to turn hatred on its head. For all the fanatical evil of Osama Bin Laden’s group of terrorists, that is overcome every day by the good that men and women do, he said.

Debates about Western imperialism and foreign policy are valid, according to Mark, but that cannot justify the murders of almost 3,000 people who were not affiliated with any geopolitical aims and were merely going about their day like normal people.

“These were people going to work, going on holidays, living their lives as best they could while doing absolutely no harm to anyone. They had nothing to do with religious and political aims.

“The bonds that were united in grief after the events of September 11 helped us cope. People were extraordinarily good to us, and I was able to channel that to volunteer with Cork Samaritans in the years afterwards.

Ruth with her husband David. Both are buried together with their daughter Juliana in St Finbarr’s Cemetery in Cork.

“When you have been through trauma and grief, you can empathise and help others. None of us have a monopoly on grief, but we all have the capacity to help each other through it,” Mark said. “Cork Samaritans is a wonderful organisation, and being able to help others as we were helped shows that we can triumph over the most evil acts.”

For all the dignity and grace and strength within the Clifford family and thousands of others across the US, there does remain frustration that those responsible for the act remain in limbo.

The so-called mastermind behind the attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and others remain in Guantanamo Bay detention camp on the island of Cuba as the case progresses through the complicated legal process. This week, he appeared in a Guantanamo Bay courtroom for the first time in 18 months, as the stuttering proceedings began yet again.

Along with four other defendants alleged to be behind the attacks on September 11, the trial has yet to begin 20 years after the act.

The Guardian’s Julian Borger reported: “Mohammed, with his distinctive red-dyed grey beard, attended Tuesday’s session with his four co-accused: his nephew, Ammar al-Baluchi; Walid bin Attash; Ramzi bin al-Shibh; and Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi.

“The pre-trial process has been going on so long that several judges and lawyers have retired or moved on to other jobs along the way, leading to yet more delays as their replacements are brought up to speed on the preceding years’ arguments.

“Tuesday’s hearing was the first under a new judge, Lt Col Matthew McCall, the seventh to preside over the case. McCall was first assigned to the case almost a year ago, but prosecutors objected to him on the grounds that he did not have the required two years’ experience.

“Like Barack Obama, Joe Biden has pledged to shut down the Guantanamo Bay camp, but faces some of the same challenges, finding countries that would accept the 39 remaining inmates, and the deadlocked 9/11 tribunal, stuck in the limbo of pre-trial hearings.”

FOR the Clifford family, the lack of progress and the feeling of unanswered questions 20 years after the crimes are troublesome.

“There seems to be a lack of political will, even at this stage, to bring it to a head,” Mark said.

Ruth (left) with her friend Paige Farley Hackel. Their dream Disneyland trip turned to a nightmare when they both perished, along with Ruth's daughter Juliana, in the 9/11 attack.

“We would like to know everything about the events leading up to and after September 11, but the questions linger on. People need and deserve answers after all these years.”

In the meantime, the memories of Ruth and Juliana grow stronger and more beautiful.

This reporter remembers vividly when, in 2016, Mark’s brother John Clifford spoke of his sister and niece. The words are as beautiful and moving today as they were then.

“I remember our last conversation vividly. Ruth was talking about how much she wanted a trip back home to Cork and to enjoy an Irish breakfast. That was Ruth — she was Cork to the core. She never forgot where she came from. She always made time to come home and loved doing so. And we loved having her back.

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“Juliana was very like her mother. She obviously would have spent most of her time in the USA growing up but, since Ruth was very much a person of Cork, Juliana would have been too. Together the memories of Ruth and Juliana make up a very powerful legacy. They live on through the younger members of all our families.

“We think about Ruth and Juliana every day. It’s how we keep their memories alive and why we will never, ever forget those precious memories.

“The grandchildren are the future of our families, and Ruth and Juliana will be kept alive through them.”