A woman who has marked the anniversary of the September 11th, 2001, attacks every year since at the US embassy in Dublin has been thanked by the US ambassador.
Dan Rooney became curious to discover the identity of the person who had left a bouquet of flowers outside the embassy in Ballsbridge to mark the anniversary.
Eithne Boland, an American who has been living in Ireland since she came here to study at UCD in 1965, was tracked down this year at Mr Rooney’s request.
“I was astonished to get a lovely phonecall . . . it’s kind of overwhelming. I’ve always known that the people in the embassy really appreciate the flowers being laid there, and I love doing it,” Ms Boland said.
“The origin of it was September 11th 2001, and the day after this place was an acre of flowers. So I just kept on bringing flowers because I’m from New York and I remember the Twin Towers being built.
"There was a lot of controversy about them being built at the time, and you could see them from almost anywhere in Manhattan. It was amazing,” she added.
Every year, Ms Boland left flowers with a poem with her name and address. “They have to put the flowers through security, that’s just the way it is,” she added.
Mr Rooney was keen to thank Ms Boland in person and publicly recognise her dedication to the memory of those who lost their lives that day.
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