OMAGH SHARES NEW YORKS 9/11 TRAUMA
Omagh shares New York's 9/11 trauma
BY JACQUELINE COURTNEY
Anniversary pain has ripple effect - expert
IT was a terrorist attack which appalled the world killing thousands and maiming hundreds of others in a brutal bloodthirsty frenzy of madness.
The suicide bombing raids on the World Trade Centre will bring back poignant memories in Omagh, and right across the world, as America marks its second anniversary of that terrible day.
In Omagh solidarity immediately grew for the victims of the American horror with a local outpouring of grief and consolation. It focussed on memorial services held throughout the district where local sorrow was linked to the losses in the Unites States.
Earlier this week a member of the team at the NI Centre for Trauma & Transformation, based in Omagh, warned the Anniversary would have ripple effects throughout the whole of American society in a sense of reminding them of their own vulnerability.
The UlsterHerald recorded the September 11 attack on the front page of its corresponding issue with headlines 'We Know their suffering' 'Omagh bombing victims identify with New York's pain' and 'Tyrone exiles see the horror.'
A story on Omagh Council opening Book of Condolences was also proclaimed on the front page.
Thereafter the Herald carried a number of other touching stories on how the disaster had an impacted on Tyrone families.
It was in the aftermath of the disaster that the Northern Ireland Centre for Trauma & Transformation, which is located at Retreat Close, was to strengthen its links with America.
Team manager and Therapeutic Cognitive Therapist, Michael Duffy who was the team co-ordinator in the Omagh Trauma (Bridge) Centre for four years explained how in the aftermath they were contacted by colleagues in the States.
The Academy of Cognitive Therapy in America had set up a Trauma Task Force to provide advice and guidance to therapists working at ground zero and asked their Omagh counterparts for assistance in setting up guidelines.
Local clinical team Director, Dr Kate Gillespie and Michael participated in that vital programme via audio conferences and e-mails and readily give what assistance they could. Internationally renowned trainer in Cognitive therapy Dr Christine Padesky from the States was also involved in the Task Force.
The Omagh trauma experts were then invited out to the States to provide a workshop at the International Society for the Study of Traumatic Stress.
"What our community has gone through here in the last five years has been extremely difficult and I think we have all got some insight into what communities experience after tragedies like this.
"We were able to empathise in a very real way with what people were going through. We will never forget the tremendous inpouring of goodwill to the Omagh area in the period after the Omagh bomb and I know there was a strong desire to reciprocate that. Many people 1 have spoken to, affected by the Omagh bombing, have said if they could give something back, by learning from this tragedy, to other communities, they would."
It was also good for people in New York to experience understanding and generosity from other communities, he added.
"There was a tremendous sense of gratitude that what they were going through was being acknowledged by the people in Omagh.
Strong links still continue to be maintained between Omagh and America through the Academy of Cognitive Therapy.
Michael said he thought that for the American people it would be a very sad time coming up to the second anniversary.
"We know from our own experience that anniversaries are very powerful reminders of what people have experienced. I think that another factor which complicates the whole grief process in America is that many many bodies were never recovered from the site".
He went on to speak about the scale of what happened in America. "Not only did September 11 impact on those who were directly affected but it also had a very powerful effect throughout the whole of the States. It generated a tremendous sense of uncertainty and quite a shattering effect on the self-confidence of American Society as a whole. It was a society which had been relatively protected from large scale war for many hundreds of years. Europe had been affected from World War One and World War Two directly and Americans had suffered great loss in these wars and subsequently conflicts in Vietnam and Korea, but these losses were all overseas and for generations they had never suffered any direct attacks on their home soil," he pointed out.
Therefore this had a very powerful impact on the self confidence of many American people.
"I think today's Anniversary, in addition to reminding the bereaved of their loss and those who were injured, will have ripple affects throughout the whole of American society in a sense of reminding them of their own vulnerability," concluded Michael.
BY JACQUELINE COURTNEY
Anniversary pain has ripple effect - expert
IT was a terrorist attack which appalled the world killing thousands and maiming hundreds of others in a brutal bloodthirsty frenzy of madness.
The suicide bombing raids on the World Trade Centre will bring back poignant memories in Omagh, and right across the world, as America marks its second anniversary of that terrible day.
In Omagh solidarity immediately grew for the victims of the American horror with a local outpouring of grief and consolation. It focussed on memorial services held throughout the district where local sorrow was linked to the losses in the Unites States.
Earlier this week a member of the team at the NI Centre for Trauma & Transformation, based in Omagh, warned the Anniversary would have ripple effects throughout the whole of American society in a sense of reminding them of their own vulnerability.
The UlsterHerald recorded the September 11 attack on the front page of its corresponding issue with headlines 'We Know their suffering' 'Omagh bombing victims identify with New York's pain' and 'Tyrone exiles see the horror.'
A story on Omagh Council opening Book of Condolences was also proclaimed on the front page.
Thereafter the Herald carried a number of other touching stories on how the disaster had an impacted on Tyrone families.
It was in the aftermath of the disaster that the Northern Ireland Centre for Trauma & Transformation, which is located at Retreat Close, was to strengthen its links with America.
Team manager and Therapeutic Cognitive Therapist, Michael Duffy who was the team co-ordinator in the Omagh Trauma (Bridge) Centre for four years explained how in the aftermath they were contacted by colleagues in the States.
The Academy of Cognitive Therapy in America had set up a Trauma Task Force to provide advice and guidance to therapists working at ground zero and asked their Omagh counterparts for assistance in setting up guidelines.
Local clinical team Director, Dr Kate Gillespie and Michael participated in that vital programme via audio conferences and e-mails and readily give what assistance they could. Internationally renowned trainer in Cognitive therapy Dr Christine Padesky from the States was also involved in the Task Force.
The Omagh trauma experts were then invited out to the States to provide a workshop at the International Society for the Study of Traumatic Stress.
"What our community has gone through here in the last five years has been extremely difficult and I think we have all got some insight into what communities experience after tragedies like this.
"We were able to empathise in a very real way with what people were going through. We will never forget the tremendous inpouring of goodwill to the Omagh area in the period after the Omagh bomb and I know there was a strong desire to reciprocate that. Many people 1 have spoken to, affected by the Omagh bombing, have said if they could give something back, by learning from this tragedy, to other communities, they would."
It was also good for people in New York to experience understanding and generosity from other communities, he added.
"There was a tremendous sense of gratitude that what they were going through was being acknowledged by the people in Omagh.
Strong links still continue to be maintained between Omagh and America through the Academy of Cognitive Therapy.
Michael said he thought that for the American people it would be a very sad time coming up to the second anniversary.
"We know from our own experience that anniversaries are very powerful reminders of what people have experienced. I think that another factor which complicates the whole grief process in America is that many many bodies were never recovered from the site".
He went on to speak about the scale of what happened in America. "Not only did September 11 impact on those who were directly affected but it also had a very powerful effect throughout the whole of the States. It generated a tremendous sense of uncertainty and quite a shattering effect on the self-confidence of American Society as a whole. It was a society which had been relatively protected from large scale war for many hundreds of years. Europe had been affected from World War One and World War Two directly and Americans had suffered great loss in these wars and subsequently conflicts in Vietnam and Korea, but these losses were all overseas and for generations they had never suffered any direct attacks on their home soil," he pointed out.
Therefore this had a very powerful impact on the self confidence of many American people.
"I think today's Anniversary, in addition to reminding the bereaved of their loss and those who were injured, will have ripple affects throughout the whole of American society in a sense of reminding them of their own vulnerability," concluded Michael.
Further Information
Publisher: ULSTER HERALD
Ref: UH/1612
Published Date: 11-Sep-03
Related Images
There have been no images archived for this article.