Memory Ireland: Volume 1: History and Modernity

14. 9/11, the War on Terror, and the Irish Language

195 14 9/11, the War on Terror, and the Irish Language BR I A N Ó CONCH U BH A I R The Fourth of July in 2002 was anything but another routine celebration of Independence Day in the United States of America. Nine months earlier on 11 September, Al Qaeda operatives had rammed a passenger jet plane into the north tower of New York’s World Trade Center at 8:45 A.M. and a second airplane into the south tower eighteen minutes later. At 9:40 A.M. a third plane crashed into the Pentagon Building in Washington D.C.; a fourth plane—Flight 93—later crash-landed at Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Killing approximately three thousand people, this attack terrified a country and traumatized a nation. The date 11 September 2001 marked the dawn of twenty-first-century political history. President George W. Bush described the attack’s effects in his 2001 State of the Union address: “Americans have known wars—but for the past 136 years, they have been wars on foreign soil, except for one Sunday in 1941. Americans have known the casualties of war—but not at the center of a great city on a peaceful morning. Americans have known surprise attacks—but never before on thousands of civilians . All of this was brought upon us in a single day—and night fell on a different world, a world where freedom itself is under attack” (Bush 2001). The different world was one in which patriotism and nationalism reemerged in the United States; flags flew, bumper stickers proclaimed patriotic and Christian messages; nationalistic ballads commemorating the 9/11 fallen and American resolve played on radio stations. Domestic and international travel changed forever. Invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq followed swiftly. “National security,” “defense of the homeland,” “terror alerts,” “sleeper 196 Modernity, History, and Memory cells,” “home-grown terrorists,” “New Jersey Jihadists,” and “Islamofascists ” all entered the daily lexicon of American English (Safire 2006, 20). The “Long War on Terror” would be fought across the globe, but unlike previous wars, this conflict would be felt by everyday Americans in their everyday lives: “Our nation has been put on notice: we are not immune from attack. We will take defensive measures against terrorism,” the president assured an uncertain nation, “to protect Americans” (Bush 2001). Such utterances, argues Richard Devetak, excited fear in audiences and evoked gothic scenes echoing Poe’s narratives “that generate fear and anxiety, where terror is a pervasive tormentor of the senses” (2005, 621). Rumors of longdormant sleeper cells circulated freely, as did hints of foiled attacks, potential targets, and devastating plans to reap havoc on drinking water supplies, the food chain, and the American way of life. The morning of 4 July 2002 saw Americans celebrating amid fears of an imminent attack. Carl Nolte wrote in the San Francisco Chronicle: “This is an Independence Day like no other: very different, very strange, as the country is different after the events of Sept. 11. America is at war, but the enemy is faceless and shadowy. He has not struck since that Tuesday morning in September; it is a war that is more like peace. . . . People are more wary, more patriotic, more angry, more conscious that life itself is shorter than we thought. . . . We even see ourselves differently. September 11 gave us a new sense of awareness. We know now that we are on the edge” (2002). The day this article appeared, other news sources revealed that FBI agents had arrested two Irish speakers on suspicion of terrorism. Sam Hudson reported for Reuters: Fear and fireworks marked the first U.S. Independence Day since Sept. 11, with military jets in the skies and anti-terrorism troops on the ground guarding Americans determined to celebrate the Fourth of July. Despite government warnings of the potential for a new attack, millions of people overcame their nerves and congregated at massive, traditional fireworks displays in major cities on the most patriotic date in the U.S. calendar. But, reflecting a sometimes schizophrenic way of life that has emerged since hijacked planes slammed into U.S. landmarks and killed thousands of people , the State Department had also urged Americans worldwide to avoid 9/11, the War on Terror, and the Irish Language 197 crowded places because of possible suicide strikes. At one such fireworks display in Springfield, Illinois, a Gaelic-speaking brother and sister were detained by anti-terrorist police...