Where were you when big news stories broke?

freshpopcorn

It might be a local/world event/death of celebrity and sometime people can remember where they were, what they were doing when these stories broke in the news?

Have you any memories?

A few off the top of my head.

9/11 I was nearly 9 and a relative of mine had died. To be honest I didn't really give it much thought apart from it being terrible. We wouldn't be a family for sitting down watching hours of breaking news tough.

Robert Holohan I was a little bit older than him and followed the news at the time during the Christmas holidays. I was in Tesco and a worker told myself and my mother that a body had been found.

Michael Jackson death my grandmother died a few days after him and we just was home from visiting her in the hospital.

First Covid case confirmed in Ireland. Sitting on the couch with my cat and wondering what was to come. We knew it was coming in the days before.

Mehaffey1

9/11 when I was 12 in a hotel room in Spain with the family. Just remember my Dad staring at the tiny tv mounted up on the wall.

igCorcaigh

9/11, I was waiting for the bus listening to RTE Radio 1 on my headphones (late for work as usual, this was around 2pm).

I caught the news about the plane crashing into the WTC in NY, and then a few minutes later to hear that the second plane had hit. They had a reporter speaking live from USA. And she also carried word about an explosion near the Pentagon.

When I did arrive at work, everyone was glued to the radio news. All the news websites went offline from the traffic. I could only get internet news from work related newsgroups.

Tom Mann Centuria

9/11 I was on a ferry to Ireland to get married that weekend. Saw it on 14" TVs on the ferry with sound off, so thought it was a terrible accident, and the second plane was just showing same incident from different angle. Wasn't paying that much attention.

Princess Diana dying, I was checking my post slot at Uni. on the Monday after it happened when a girl just burst out crying and informed the room.

igCorcaigh

I also remember watching breaking BBC news about the Piper Alpha disaster (1988), and the Zeebrugge ferry disaster too (1987). But I was quite young back then.

There were a lot of horrible disasters back in the 1980's. I also remember watching scenes from Hillsborough (1989) where they cleared the pitch, but the scale of the tragedy took a while to be known.

Also, the Bradford stadium fire (1985) Warning: Graphic content (analysis). I remember the day, but not much the TV pictures.

dxhound2005

For years I thought I was a suspect in the Kennedy shooting. People were always asking me where I was when it happened.

gipi

I was wallpapering a room with the football on the TV in the background when the Hillsborough tragedy happened.

I remember the itv news report on the Bradford City fire.

For 9/11, one of my office colleagues came back from lunch to tell us what had happened. We switched on a radio to hear the news. I remember going into a pub after work to watch the TV news and see the event before I went home.

I was on hols in Dubrovnik when QE2 died.

FintanMcluskey

I remember where I was when Shergar was kidnapped.

F#cker nearly kicked the head off me in the trailer

The Royal Scam

9/11 , I was working alone in a area within a large multi national pharmaceutical site in the Midlands where you wear a type of space suit with the air you breath is supplied into your suit through hoses into the wall. No phone, no Internet. I had gowned up around the time the first plane struck, when I degarbed and came out 4 hrs later the whole world was different.

Trampas

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121612952#Comment_121612952

So listening to Joe Duffy 😂

L1011

9/11 my school decided not to tell us, but we found out on the way home because a few of us had phones by that stage.

cj maxx

911 in the Rockerfella centre.

the fall of apartheid and the Berlin Wall at home .

the Good Friday agreement in work

Gregor Samsa

September 11 2001,I was in work in a web development company in Dublin. One of our colleagues had previously worked for a company in one of the twin towers and had a lot of friends that worked there, and was obviously quite concerned, but we were all in shock about what was going on. Our general manager (who was an American) came into the room and saw us all online trying to find out what was going on. He told us “get back to work. This isn’t a big deal”. Dickhead. He was really pissed off when he had to give us the day off for the National Day of Mourning a few days later.

I watched the Heysel Stadium Disaster, the Challenger shuttle disaster and Tommy Cooper’s death on live TV with my family.

cj maxx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121613183#Comment_121613183

Yeah , I saw the challenger on John Cravens newsround .

angel eyes 2012

I was an in-patient in Beaumont Hospital for 911. I remember one of the senior consultants stopping and staring at the television shaking his head in disbelief at the scenes unfolding before us.

BrianD3

I first heard about 9/11 when I was driving and turned on the radio, the south tower had already collapsed by that stage. I changed my plans and went home to watch the rest on TV.

Hillsborough: first heard about it several hours later when I was at Mass with my parents and the priest made a comment about the "tragic events in England today"

Lockerbie, was at home watching TV when there was a Newsflash.

Before smartphones, social media and 24 hour news, a person could easily miss the breaking of a big news story.

zell12

Bertie decided to quit as Taoiseach in 2008, as TD in 2011, as an FFer in 2012. Then return to FF in 2023. I was somewhere doing something each time

Ger Roe

9/11 - I was on a plane coming back to Dublin from Liverpool, at the time the first plane hit. I didn't know anything about it, until I got back to my car and turned on the radio. There were reports of a 'small plane' having crashed into the twin towers and programmes at RTE Radio 1 continued with more details to follow. As I headed down the N11 to my home in Wicklow, the focus of the programme switched to continuous news updates as the situation developed. I got to my house and left the luggage in the car to run in and turn the TV on.... it was then that I saw the second plane hit and the world changed.

The death of Princess Dianna - I was in London on the night and it was the last night of a weekend away from myself and my wife. We had not been to see Buckingham palace yet, so we stood at the gates, just to tick the box, at what turned out to be the time that she died in Paris. We were staying in an apartment with no TV and when we got up next morning to head to the airport, I noticed that London seemed far quieter than usual... there was certainly something different about the Sunday morning atmosphere. When we got to the rail station for our train to Heathrow, I saw a newspaper on a stand with the headline ' Princess Di Dead'. Everyone who passed by it, was as shocked as I was and the train journey to the airport was virtually silent - at Heathrow, every monitor at every gate was showing BBC News continuous coverage.

Considering that both events took place while I was on trips abroad.... for years my family was always very nervous for the world whenever I decided to take a holiday.

Larbre34

I think 9/11 is clear for all, but one I do remember very clearly is the Pan-Am Lockerbie disaster, just before Christmas 1988.

I was 10 and we were visiting family down the Country ahead of the main festivities. My parents had gone out for a drink with some other family and myself and my cousin who was my age, had stayed behind to be minded by my Aunt, who herself had a small infant baby.

There was no 24 hour news stations then, and so I remember clearly playing on the floor while some light entertainment or other was on a BBC station that my Aunt was watching while nursing the baby.

The programme was interrupted and a BBC newsflash came on describing the outline of what they knew about an incident that had happened about 20 mins prior, being a large plane crash in the Scottish Borders area.

I think it was the fact that it was Christmas and that over the next few days some awful images and details emerged about the gravity of the incident that it stuck with me.

KungPao

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121612967#Comment_121612967

I was on a ferry back to Ireland when news broke that Benny Hill had died. Still getting over it.

Pauliedragon

9/11 I was living in Sydney. Having a beer with a friend of mine sitting in the bank hotel and the bartender pointed us to the TV behind us it was about 11pm I think.

Hiilsborough I was 9 years old coming back from town with my parents. The radio was on in the car and there was a message came on that there was a disturbance at the Liverpool V Forest match. When we got home we turned on BBC and the carnage was nuts nobody knew what was going on. Everyone assumed at that time it was hooligans as that the way English matches were back then.

Princees Diana I was 17. 1st time I was was allowed stay home when my parents went on holidays with my brother and sister so of course I had a party I was hungover to **** and and friend burst into my room in the morning to scream Diana is dead. My pounding head was more important to be honest.

freshpopcorn

I don't remember Diana dying I was about five an due to start Junior Infants.

However my mam had to drive my dad to a pub to collect his brother. The stumbled out a few hours later and said Diana the pop star was dead.

So, my mam thought it was Diana Ross.

HalloweenJack

I remember coming home from school on 9/11 and seeing the news.

I had football training that evening and we were all talking about it, though we were 13 years old and wouldn't have had a clue what it was all about.

DellyBelly

I was in the kitchen when I heard Bertie Ahern was stepping down as Taoiseach. Was shocked when u heard it

Ginger83

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058331177/where-were-you-when-big-news-stories-broke

9/11

I was on a printing press ready to go to good copy. The second plane hit and the production manager literally said stop the press.

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Grayson

For 9-11 I wasn't working that day. I had a friend who texted me when I was coming down the stairs and told me to switch on the TV. He was cabin crew. We had a crappy TV with crappy reception so shortly after we went to a local pub and asked them to change the channel. There was golf I think on the channel and the barman really didn't want to change.

I remember Diana dying. I was up late watching crappy TV on ITV and the program was interrupted by a news bulletin.

cj maxx

Strangely on 911 , the Rockerfella centre thought it wise to lock us in the building , rather than evacuate us which seems counter intuitive . I’ll forever remember the scene looking down 6th Ave and seeing thousands of people walking uptown , and taxis , buses and general people giving us lifts across the bridges .

Rubberchikken

I was shopping in the then Quinn's worth when the news came over the radio that the gulf war had ended.

Diana - news brought home from others who had been at mass and the priest had prayed for her.

9/11 newspaper I think. We'd only rte at the time and I'd no interest in watching it, rte I mean.

brokenbad

9/11 - getting ready to head into work on the afternoon shift, tv on in the background when the story broke on RTE News that a plane had hit WTC....

Madeline McCann disappearance - on our honeymoon in Italy. It was all over Sky News....

miamee

For 9/11 I was working that day in a small company and I remember being in the kitchen shortly after the lunch break getting water or something and the cleaning lady had the radio on and was glued to it. That was the first I heard of it then went back to my desk to check out Sky News and see what the hell was going on. I have plenty of cousins in New York (who were born & reared there) so there were some worries about who was in the city that day. 3 of my cousins were in the city but all ok thankfully. My aunt and uncle's eldest was potentially in the area that day and they couldn't get in touch with him. My uncle (not normally too religious) prayed to God for his son's safety and promised if his son was ok he'd never touch another drop of alcohol in his life. He stuck to his word, died 2 years ago in his 80s he never drank again. You can only imagine the panic.

Princess Diana's death, I was working in a hotel in Germany with a college friend to improve our German. We had no radio in our little apartment (part of the hotel) and had a tv but on work days you'd never have it on in the morning. The Chefin, lady who owned the hotel came to us and told us in German that Princess Diana was dead and we didn't believe her or thought there was something lost in translation We went up to the hotel TV room after our breakfast and watched a bit of Sky News to see what had happened, it was very shocking.

Omagh bombing - I don't remember the day it happened, I do remember the shock and I remember taking a newspaper up to my bedroom and crying my eyes out reading about all of the victims, people just going about their business on a Saturday doing some shopping.

Not a big world event but for some reason I still remember where I was on a bus upstairs in a window seat at Aston Quay with my earphones in listening to the radio when they announced that Amy Winehouse was dead. I was a big fan and hoped to see her when she was up to gigging and touring etc but that never happened.

bodhrandude

Was twelve years old when the news of Elvis Presley's death occurred, it was on ITN News at Ten the headline, The King is Dead. Watching it on my grand parents black and white telly on the side of a mountain in County Leitrim.

SuperBowserWorld

A twinkle in my father's eye.

o1s1n

9/11 I was a 6th year in secondary school and was in the PE hall which was a different building to the main school.

Was about 3pm and the last class of the day. Was sitting in a corner drawing, always had an excuse to get out of PE class, I hated it.

There was no intercom in the PE building but one of my class mates got a text message saying there'd been an announcement in the main building that planes had hit the World Trade Centre and we were all to go home immediately.

I didn't have any context beyond that and rumblings from class mates who were getting text messages with disjointed info. Genuinely remember a very rushed 25 minute walk home from school with absolutely no idea what was going on other than the US was under attack and WW3 was potentially starting.

Really surreal experience.

Sgt Hartman

I remember being in a pub in Kilkee Co.Clare with my Dad when news of the Omagh bombing appeared on the tv there.

cj maxx

When princess diana was killed I was in work . It made absolutely no difference to me , but several people seemed shocked .

TinyMuffin

I was waiting for my takeaway when jack chambers came out. And not of the takeaway.

Firblog

Where was I 9/11? no idea, when death of Elvis / Diana / QE2 announced? ditto.

But the really big one? I can tell you where I was, what room, what seat I was sitting in, and who were sitting either side of me...

Had never even heard of Saipan before that day

Gregor Samsa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121614505#Comment_121614505

32 years getting over it? Sounds more like Benny Mountain than Benny Hill.

gipi

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121619578#Comment_121619578

That's reminded me - I was in a classroom in the Donegal Gaeltacht, when the word went round "Tá Elvis Presley marbh"

Strumms

9/11… in work. Quiet day, the early shift were on break and the MDs PA came rushing out to tell us to turn on the small portable TV that was previously strictly reserved for Ireland football matches on mute… we knew something major was happening as this wan could walk past you or any ‘line’ staff member for a month with hardly so much as a hello….

First covid case… on holiday….Sol Don Pablo Hotel… Torremolinos… had a lovely week and it wasn’t until I got back and some time indeed after that it got so bad that this was becoming obvious it would become something globally destructive and dangerous.

Omagh Bombing….living in France, didn’t have an ipad, or smartphone so discovered what happened on the late news at whatever time there. Got the whole picture in work the following day online. Grim.

Dianas death… at home, woke up, TV on, story plastered everywhere. Couldn’t have given a shît (ive zero interest in the royals either way ) apart from wondering if she was bumped off…. Im convinced we’ll never know the truth there…… as time passes I’m leaning towards the ‘not an accident’ view.

thomil

Ho boy, time to make myself feel old again.

First news story I vaguely remember is the Chernobyl disaster. I still remember us ending our holidays with the family in Austria and racing back up to Hamburg. I now realize that this was to get away from the cloud of radioactive particles being blown towards Austria, but back then I just remembered the name, and being mad that our vacation had been cut short...

The fall of the Berlin Wall, I experienced at home, southwest of Hamburg. That is a memory that will always be etched in my mind. I still remember sitting in the living room with my parents, it was WAY past my bedtime, and watching the images from Berlin come over the TV. I remember seeing my parents and grandma with tears in their eyes, as they never expected to live to see the wall come down without WW3 breaking out. In fact, that entire summer is something I'll be unlikely to forget as even eight-year-old me was able to sense that "something" was changing.

As for 9/11, that was initially a day of celebration for me. I was in Austria and just about to start what would be my final year of school after passing a rather major exam. I was outside my boarding school chilling with some friends when another student ran out and told us that a plane hat hit the World Trade Center. At first, I brushed it off, it wasn't until the evening that the reality of the situation began to sink in.

Finally, COVID. March 12th, 2020. I was in the office with my current employer. We'd heard rumors that something was coming regarding the virus, we'd all followed the news, and then the announcement came that the Taoiseach was going to give a statement. EVERY desk in the office had at least one screen showing the announcement from Leinster House. I had an appointment with my therapist that afternoon and it struck me even then how surreal everything was.

miamee

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121622664#Comment_121622664

You've just reminded me, for the lockdown announcement that day I was working from home as I did every Thursday. Very quickly there was a company email that everyone would be working from home from then on until further notice (they were expecting about 2 weeks 🙄) and everyone was to take whatever they needed home with them that day. I never got back to that office to collect personal items or to say goodbye in person to my team. We've all since moved on. It was one of those strange moments that you don't realise how big they are until further down the road, lockdown was a big deal but the enormity of it all was lost on most of us I think until more time had passed.

yourdeadwright

9/11 in the canteen in Dunne's having a brak when the first plane hit, Had just left school & was waiting to start college,

Spent the rest of the day in the canteen,

Diana died i was getting ready to go to a football match it was a Sunday morning & heard my Ma was crying in the kitchen, Went in to see what happened & she said the radio said Diana had died , i was 14 & didn't care at all,

I heard Michael Jackson died when i was in the car park coming out of seeing The Hangover

Burt Renaults

I don't know what happened on the 9th of November, but on 11/9/2001, I was watching Diagnosis Murder on BBC 1. I was a bit annoyed when they interrupted it to tell us that some sort of little aircraft had accidentally hit a building in a foreign country. It was only when every channel started switching to the news or simulcasting US news sites that it occurred to me that it was a 767 and not just some wealthy idiot in a Cessna. It was only when the second plane crashed that I realised (after a few seconds of confusion about whether it was a replay of the original impact) that shit, as my dear old granny would say, had just gotten real.

FrancieBrady

On a packed bus in Athlone when news of agreement that resulted in the GFA came in. Driver turned up the radio. The bus had originated in Belfast (Bel-Galway) and there was a huge cheer. Memorable.

9-11 was looking after my 4 month old son when Dufy said turn on your TV - saw the second plane hit live.

Was washing dishes after a dinner party in the early hours when news of Diana's car accident came on, you could guess the worst had happened before the official announcement because the newsreaders where all in black tie and the mood was sombre. I have not been forgiven for not waking up my partner who slept in until after she died.

thomil

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121623884#Comment_121623884

I know exactly what you mean, I just left my desk that evening with some personal stuff still on it. I was expecting maybe a month or two of working from home and didn't realize that I wouldn't be seeing some of those colleagues again. Nothing dramatic, they just left the company.

Oh, and we got permission from management to strip the company kitchen of any perishables. That was the evening shopping sorted 😁 Went to the therapy session with six liters of milk in my backpack...

o1s1n

Does anyone remember on 9/11 thinking 'this is going to be one of those "where were you when JFK was shot" moments'?

its_steve116

I was coming into Celbridge Co. Kildare when the news broke that Prince had passed on. I was listening to TXFM (formerly Phantom 105.2) and after the announcement, they played non-stop Prince songs.

Sultan of Bling

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121623960#Comment_121623960

I thought it was neighbours they interrupted.

Motivator

Omagh bombing - we had landed in Orlando on a family holiday on the 15th August and as we were checking into the hotel, a family from Omagh were checking out. They were heading home. I always wonder if they knew a person or maybe several people that died. I was only 12 but I’ll never forget the look of devastation on the poor parents faces in the lobby of the hotel as they were chatting to my parents. Such a contrast between my family and theirs in the middle of Florida where nobody else would really have had any idea of the reality of what had happened.

Princess Diana - I was on a mini bus home from a football trip. We had gone over to watch a game in England on the Saturday and came back on the ferry. I remember the news bulletins coming on every hour in the bus and then woke up the following morning to hear she had died. I didn’t really get the public grief at the time.

Tsunami in Asia - was it St Stephen’s Day it happened? I remember waking up and seeing the early stages of a disaster on Sky News. A day or two later I went for a pint in town and vividly remember the tv was on in the pub and Sky News had a banner on the screen “fears death toll could hit 500,000”. I’ll always remember just being gobsmacked reading that.