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IRISH PARTICIPANTS in yesterday’s Boston Marathon have spoken of their trauma and anguish as they witnessed the twin bomb blasts at the finish line of the race – and of their difficulty finding loved ones in the chaos.
Eamonn Loughran from Ballymena had asked his wife to meet him at the finish line after completing the 26-mile race – and could not be united with his wife for several hours afterwards.
“I was no more than fifty yards over the line – I actually thought it was an amplifier, or a music thing, that had exploded,” he told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.
“I wasn’t sure what it was, at that stage, but another one [exploded] within a minute, 100 yards on… that says, ‘Right, this is real… get out of here, quick’.”
Official race tracking timers showed Loughran had passed the finish line around two minutes before the blasts, which came within 15 seconds and 100 yards of each other on the same crowded side of Boylston Street.
Loughran had asked his wife to meet him at Copley Square, a green area just past the finish line on Boylston Street, but was unable to get in touch with her because of difficulties with mobile phone networks, and Loughran could not know for sure where his wife had been at the time of the blasts.
“I was crying, thinking the worst, because that’s where I had told her to be,” Loughran said.
“There was another man who came in at that time, and his wife had been watching too – but his wife had come back, and my wife was the only one who hadn’t come back.”
It later transpired that his wife had tried to return to their hotel, but had been unable to take a train or taxi, and had travelled on foot – but had gotten lost because she was not familiar with the area.
“I couldn’t get over how happy I was, and how happy everyone else was,” Loughran said, recalling his feelings finishing the marathon before the blast. “It had all changed, from the most happiest and joyful event ever to the most horrible, worrying time. It just ruined it.”
Bobby Hilliard from Clonakilty said he thought the explosions were sparklers or fireworks going off – but realised otherwise when he saw the reaction of the American athletes.
“The American runners started running very quickly. They panicked,” he told Morning Ireland. “They knew straight away and started running in every direction. They knew what they were doing.”
Hilliard said he had only just finished the race – and could have been closer to the blasts, as he had considered walking the final stretch of the race instead of keeping pace to record a better overall time for the 42-kilometre course.
“If somebody set off the bomb with the intent of hurting, they couldn’t have picked a better time,” he said. “They knew they’d get maximum devastation of it.
“One of the most positive things you can do is run a marathon in your life,” he added, but asked – with reports of an 8-year-old among the dead and with around 10 people said to have lost limbs – “What’s the point?”
Eugene Coppinger, an organiser with Sports Travel International, an Irish firm which arranges tours to major global marathons, said another Irish runner – Gerry Carr from Clonliffe Harriers – had finished the race only 30 seconds before the blasts.
He told Newstalk Breakfast that the timing chips worn by participants meant he was confident relatively quickly that most of his runners were not as close to the site of the explosions – as skilled runners would have finished the course by the time, while more amateur runners would have had some way to go.
“People should be celebrating – it’s a fantastic marathon. Anyone who did get to the finish would normally be out celebrating … there’s no way you could be out celebrating in Boston tonight.”
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It was terrible what happened to Gaddafi. He was doing a fantastic job for Libya. The bankers ordered his death as his gold dinar was close to being implemented and Western governments came along and toppled him.
The funny thing is people actually believe there was a revolution in Libya. We now know it is a fact that Qatar had hundreds of its ground troops dressed up as rebels in Libya during ‘uprising’ and that the Sudanese army helped too.
An absolute shame, and Libya is a basket case now.
And the sheep keep swallowing the crap.
My God BLowe, how could I have been so blind? Gadafi was always a reasoned democratic leader, and Quatar were always threatening to expand their national airlines route offerings by military force! It all makes so much sense. Thank you for opening my eyes!
@B Lowe you have swallowed a fair amount of it.
B Lowe, you get a thumbs-up from me for being completely bonkers
That’s not to mention the tons upon tons of Libyan gold,that was extracted after his murder !!!
http://www.defensenews.com/article/20111026/DEFSECT04/110260309/Qatar-Admits-Had-Boots-Ground-Libya.
This is just one of many sources on the Qatari ground troops dressed up as ‘rebels’ issue.
Also, by the way, the rebels advancing on Gaddafi compound in Tripoli was staged by Al Jazeera. What you saw on the TV did not happen until two days later when Qatari ground troops entered Tripoli.
Gaddafi was a dictator but at least his people had the cheapest petrol, oil in the world, best health and education system in Africa and a free house when u got married. Now u have government milita using chemical weapons against Gaddafi strongholds as reported in several news outlets last week and the first action of the new regime was to set up a private central bank where they can issue loads of debt/slavery. Welcome to democracy Libya.
Exactly, it had nothing to do with his government or how Libya’s internal politics ran or even under the guise of humanitarian efforts, it was simply that Libya was isolated like Iran and N. Korea from the big banks (debt free) and western influence and as mentioned earlier was getting close to bring in a African currency backed by gold, one its nations could all trade and benefit from instead of being tied to the dollar which is purely issued debt.
Hopefully by now people are seeing the picture that they won’t tolerated this and whatever it takes to get that control is not beyond their reach, economically, military or covertly. Saddam H. was also looking to move from the dollar and trade Iraqi oil in Euro’s or other more stable currency as early as 2001 before U.S. attentions turned on him 2 years later.
In the end, they have created the situation for every nation in the world to be in debt to them. It’s the core reason why the world today is exactly how it is and worryingly visible how difficult it would be to break free of their control.
Spot on comment, well said. And now its time for all sheepol to stop swallowing MSM bull$hit (main stream media).
Yes, I’m sure a load of hippies are going to succeed where the might of the Libyan and Iraqi dictatorships failed! Get a grip! And the more you call people ‘sheepol’ the more they call you idiots. Good luck with your lost cause.
You live by the sword and die by it, what about the terrorist organisations his government supported.The IRA being one of them and the Pan-Am flight over scotland .to many innocent Irish and other innocent nationalities died because of that tyrant.Good riddance I say.
Pan Am flight over Scotland??
Hello? The US paid all the witnesses in that case millions for their testimony. Every witness who provided evidence has since retracted their statements.
It was not Libya.
Are you saying he never pumped arms to the IRA? Wake up……
‘..live by the sword and die by the sword..’, eh, david.
So whats the delay with the paras getting shot down unarmed in the street?
Widgery complications, maybe?
Sorry to disappoint all the sheepol in here. B lowe’s comments are 100% correct. Gaddafi was an honourable leader to his People. A controlled western media portrayed him as an evil savage. Who are the “Controlled western media”?, where to start, SKY /FOX BBC CNN RTE FRANCE-24,& every other news channel you can find on your tv,,not no mention tabloid & broad sheets,the list is endless. Research it for yourselves folks. Its wake up time
Damien I have no clew as to what you are trying to say, and anytime you put down the ra on this site you literally get shot down for it, pardon the pun but thats what happens.
God forbid anybody mention the provos here but they got an awful lot of help from that tyrant .
You ‘..haven’t a clew..’, David..speaks for itself.
I simply took you up on your own inane phraseology of a biased simplification and troll on an article about the conseuences of yet another Nato oil-mission accomplished.
I didn’t ‘shoot you down’, not even metaphorically.
You did that yourself. Firstly by neglecting the circumstances that created the IRA. Secondly by your latest response, again neglecting to mention the tyranny of the Stormont apartheid/sectarian statelet which finally provoked an armed reaction to its iron fisted methodology of state terror. States do terror too, David.
I thought you’d noticed.
Gaddafi was not a tyrant David. He was an enlightened dictator and the vast vast majority of people in Libya loved him.
@Davis Walshe. SO, he gave some arms to the provos a quarter of a century ago. Is that really a justification to go in and destabilize a country, sodomize and murder him, execute any suspected Gaddafi supporter, kill blacks because they couldnt be bothered to discriminate them from imported mercenaries, install the muslim brotherhood, consequently have a diplomat murdered in a terrorist attack? All because he really wanted to produce his own African currency and dump the Dollar and the Euro. Do you see how dumb you look now? Im neither a Gaddafi or SF/Provo supporter but my God I’m flabbergasted at your level of indiscriminate stupidity and lack of your own original thought.
@Walshe. Also Gaddafi turned on the provos and provided a detailed inventory of what was given to the Brits and Tony Blair. So any self respecting Provie wouldn’t be singing his praises. Do you God damn research and stop being a lazy thinker. Its annoying.
Yeah, nobody here really cares. Sure it’s miles away.
War is war, revolutions are seldom pleasant affairs, now the new rulers of Libya must convince their backers in the western powers that they mean to develop a democratic system of government, by bringing to justice the perpetrators of these brutal crimes committed in their name
It’s highly unlikely that the western backers of the “revolution” did it to install democracy in Libya?
IMO Thats quite naive, it’s always about money and power.
Libya held gold reserves of 144 tons and Gadaffi was actively trying to use it to trade oil. If that had come to pass then the dollar would be dislodged as the worlds reserve currency.
Have a look here and make up your own mind
http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/World_News_3/article_7886.shtml
You hit it on the head Mick. Well done.
Thanks B Lowe,
Most of the time I just observe topics like this to avoid the inevitable “You’re crazy” reply.
I’m too busy to get some “proof” or “facts” when requested because it’s notoriously difficult to find a mainstream news source that actually reports in an unbiased manner.
The closest that can be found is RT and most people commenting here won’t accepts their sources either.
Keep up your good work and when the taunts get too much keep in mind this quote from Dave Chapelle:
“The worst thing to call somebody is crazy. It’s dismissive. I don’t understand this person so they’re crazy. That’s bullshit. These people are not crazy. They are strong people. Maybe the environment is a little sick.”
Hate to break it to you Mick, but RT, as Russia’s state news agency, is also mainstream media.
If western media are capable of engaging in propaganda (as they undoubtedly are) hasn’t it occurred to you that RT could be doing the same?
@Slapstick- I would agree that Gadaffi did not deserve the terrible fate he received, I would assert that he was the architect of his own downfall. I am sure that the relatives of the 1200 killed in the Abu Salim prison massacre would agree that he was an enlightened and much loved leader.
http://www.amnesty.org.au/news/comments/346
http://www.hrw.org/es/news/2009/10/16/libya-free-all-unjustly-detained-prisoners
As you make the case that you are the fountain of knowledge on the subject. Point us mere sheepol (your term of abuse to refer to anyone who does not agree with you) to where you have researched the matters under discussion perhaps -DCU, UCD, TCD, NUI, or maybe centres of academic excellence outside our humble state. I would appreciate if you would enlighten me as to where you found this fountain of independent balanced unbiased knowledge that supports your case.
As for your outlandish claims about the controlled mainstream media since you claim it is every news channel on our TV that is controlled (all media have a bias) should we just take your word on it.
The media are in the business of making money, so are the conspiracy theorists, or did you just think in your naivety that they are honest bedfellows.
What I do find strange is that so many of the commentators, who profess the most unbalanced unsubstantiated paranoid views on this forum hide behind anonymous Identities. This is definitely evidence of their overactive paranoia complex. You and your paranoid friends certainly have devoured a large amount of the substance you seem to think others have swallowed, and you keep regurgitating it. Keep wearing the red nose and the make up, because we do take you so seriously.
The Arab spring seems to have skipped summer and Autumn went straight to a nightmare winter. All the Dictators are being replaced by religious fanatics and backward murdering savages.
have your say