OLDEST IRISH AMERICAN NEWSPAPER IN USA, ESTABLISHED IN 1928
Category: Archive

Irish to the rescue

February 17, 2011

By Staff Reporter

That might have been the number rather than 911 last week when U.S. Airways flight 1549 belly flopped in the Hudson River.
For a time, and given similar events in aviation history, it looked like there were going to be serious casualties.
In the end, thankfully, this was not the case at all, at least in the physical sense.
There were no deaths or life threatening injuries though it might take a while to fully account for the kind of emotional trauma that passengers and crew alike experienced.
That trauma, however, was considerably reduced by the promptness and professionalism of these who rushed to the scene. They came from those city departments that you would normally expect but high praise has to be heaped on those New York Waterway boats, their captains and crews, who arrived first at the extraordinary scene.
The first on the spot had a noticeably Irish name, the Nora Smith.
And it didn’t escape our notice either that the first New York Police Department team in the rescue operation sounded like the front line of an Emerald Society.
These NYPD Emergency Service Unit officers were Sean Mulcahy, Michael McGuinness, James Coll and John McKenna.
We suspect that this foursome is a tight one for reasons other than their training.
Officer Mulcahy is the son of Dennis Mulcahy, founder of Project Children and retired NYPD Bomb Squad officer. Mulcahy senior is a Cork native while Sean’s mother is from Leitrim.
Dennis Mulcahy is an aide to the grand marshal for this year’s New York St. Patrick’s Day Parade.
Three of the officers who rushed to the Hudson, and into it, are the sons of retired NYPD officers. In addition to Sean Mulcahy, Detectives Coll and McKenna trace their family roots back to Ireland.
Detective Sergeant McGuinness’s father is retired from the NYPD and his family is originally from Limerick. Detective Delaney attended a college semester in Dublin. His father is a retired NYPD Detective and his grandfather came to America from Galway.
One of the first two NYPD divers in the water was Michael Delaney, who jumped into the freezing Hudson with his partner, Robert Rodriguez, to save two women who were not lucky enough to have gained a wet foothold on the wings of the stricken A320 Airbus.
The skill of pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger went most of the way to avoiding outright disaster on a frigid Thursday afternoon in January.
There was also a little luck involved, Irish and otherwise.
But there was, critically, the superlative efforts of those who have followed in the long tradition of front line Irish American service to city, state and country. And for that we can be all more than a little proud.

Other Articles You Might Like

Sign up to our Daily Newsletter

Click to access the login or register cheese