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Franciscan friar recognised as first fatality of terrorist attacks 25 years ago on New York’s Twin Towers
Franciscan friar recognised as first fatality of terrorist attacks 25 years ago on New York’s Twin Towers Firefighters and rescue workers carry Fr Mychal Judge's body from the wreckage of the World Trade Center, New York.
Photograph: Shannon Stapleton/ReutersWhere others fled the collapsing towers, Judge remained at post to give the last rites to the firemen on site. He was in the lobby of the North Tower praying for victims when the South Tower collapsed, burying him under the rubble and killing him. The photograph of Judge was taken by Reuters photographer Shannon Stapleton, who was in the area on another job when the attacks happened.
It was one of the first photographs taken after the towers collapsed. Judge, a Franciscan priest, became known as Victim 0001, of 9/11, of the 2,603 people who died when two hijacked planes crashed into the Twin Towers on the morning of September 11th, 2001.
Four HSE regions to lose power over day-to-day spending Gaffe at Leonard’s Corner review: Super prices and a dribblingly good cheeseburger at this neighbourhood pub He had been a much-loved chaplain to the New York Fire Department since 1992 and was known for his outreach to members of the gay community in the city. Fr Mychal Judge's parents were from Co Leitrim and met on the boat when they emigrated to the US. Photograph: Jim Lord/Getty.
His father, Michael Judge, left Keshcarrigan 100 years ago in 1926 and his mother Mary Fallon was from Drumkeeran. They met on the boat when they emigrated to theJudge visited Keshcarrigan in February 2000 and brought a stone from the gable of his father’s house back to New York. In 2005 a peace garden was opened in Keshcarrigan on the fourth anniversary of 9/11.
The garden, on the shores of Kesh Lake, was located on land owned by Judge’s father before he emigrated to the US. It was opened by Judge’s twin sister Dympha Jessich, who died in 2021.
“I think Mychal wishes he was here,” Jessich said at the time. She presented the people of the village with the two flags that draped her brother’s coffin: the flag of the New York City Fire Department and the Stars and Stripes. A park bench with his name on it and a memorial based on the design of the Twin Towers became part of the peace garden, which regularly attracts US visitors.
Saturday’s memorial service will be accompanied by the planting of a tree to replace the one, planted in Judge’s memory, that blew down during Storm Éowyn.
“Everybody remembers where they were on 9/11 and everybody remembers that photograph of Mychal,” Keshcarrigan Community Development chairman Patrick McGreevy said. “We in Leitrim didn’t forget Fr Mychal as he didn’t forget where his parents came . We remember him as one of Leitrim’s sons. ” The ceremony takes place from Keshcarrigan village at 1.30pm when the National Ambulance Service pipe band and the Kiltubrid Pipe Band will lead guests to the park for the dedication.
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