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Photos courtesy Director Thomas G. MacNamara
EDDIE O’MAHONEY, DANIEL McNALLY, Thomas MacNamara, Mike Hussey and Brendan Carroll reunite at An Beal Bocht during the filming of ‘The Kingsbridge Boys: From Grammar School to Ground Zero.’
Film follows local men’s journey on 9/11 By Sarina Trangle strangle@riverdalepress.com
I
t was a reunion they’d only dream up in nightmares. Four men who spent their childhood hanging around stoops near St. John’s School and filming prank shorts around Kingsbridge reported to work at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. Brendan Carroll, a heating, ventilation and air conditioning engineer concluded the last sweep of building No. 7 by ensuring the granite floor on the lobby was still intact. Mike Hussey, an electrician in 40 Rector St., guided people out of the building and was running back to assist others when the tumbling first tower threw him and firefighter Eddie O’Mahoney off course. Danny McNally, an NYPD Bomb Squad detective, ushered a woman to safety and began searching the custom’s building for survivors when tower No. 2 tumbled through the roof. All four survived. On the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Thomas MacNamara, 54, set out to document his childhood friends’ ground zero stories with help from his creative partner Darryl Hardin. A year later, on Saturday, The Kingsbridge Boys: From Grammar School to Ground
Zero, played at the Riverdale YM-YWHA stage at a private community screening. In it, Mr. Carroll, Mr. Hussey, Mr. O’Mahoney and Mr. McNally recite stark narratives against a black screen, recalling colleagues and friends lost in the attacks. Reels shot by Mr. MacNamara and his father on a wind-up eightmillimeter video camera accent tales from the sons of Irish immigrants –– John Kennedy waves at crowds, graduates of St. John’s in Kingsbridge parade down sidewalks and the teenage boys fling dummies off roofs in spoof shorts. Maps and snapshots of the Kingsbridge Boys flash as the men explain how their first-generation lifestyle revolved around St. John’s School, where the class would stop and recite Hail Mary when sirens roared past, and St. John’s Parish, where they learned to leave food outside for hungry neighbors before Thanksgiving ding-dong-ditch style. “The sense of responsibility that was instilled in us as kids came through for these guys on 9/11. They did the neighborhood proud,” said Mr. MacNamara, a producer now living in Studio City, Ca. “It’s important to get this down for history, not just for our neighborhood, but to see what four regular, blue collar worker kind of guys experienced down there in the middle of this crazy situation.” The audience stiffened as the men
A MAP INDICATES where Brendan Carroll, Daniel McNally, Eddie O’Mahoney and Mike Hussey found themselves on September 11, 2001. recounted when their daily routines were interrupted on Sept 11, 2001. Mr. Carroll was guiding a visitor through a locked door when the lights dimmed, which reminded a co-worker of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Metal sheets rained from the north tower. People soon followed. “To stand on a 100th floor building, look out a window, watch the person previously leave that window in front of
you, see what happens to them, think of your wife and kids and walk out that window –– it’s a tough move,” he said. Mr. Carroll and fellow engineers evacuated the building, grounded elevators and swept stairs to ensure nobody remained in building No. 7, before running out. A colleague at the West 100th Street firehouse ushered Mr. O’Mahoney onto a fire truck, saying, “You know, a
COUNTERCLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT, Thomas MacNamara, Brendan Carroll, Daniel McNally, Mike Hussey and Eddie O’Mahoney, where they grew up near West 230th Street.
lot of firemen are going to die today.” He recalled trying to ignore the thud of flesh and bone against the pavement as he prepared to run up 75 flights of stairs and search the southern tower. “If I can get up there and just stop one person from taking the death leap, that’s what I’m going to do,” Mr. O’Mahoney said. Then the northern tower crashed, flinging him across the lobby of the southern building where belabored breathing and darkness convinced him he was dead. Minutes later, a colleagues’ orders roused him up, out and past fire trucks “mangled like toys.” Three hundred and forty-three firefighters died in the attacks, sending Mr. O’Mahoney to funerals until December. Mr. McNally encountered two cops struggling to support a shoeless woman, who was too heavy to be carried. Mr. McNally urged her along, saying, “Lady if you don’t walk off this plaza, we’re all going to die because we’re not leaving you.” He and coworkers then began sweeping building No. 6 when the trembles of the northern tower echoed above. Mr. McNally said he hunched himself down to as “small as possible,” and –– not having “the balls to say, ‘Spare me,’” –– asked God to “take him as quickly as possible.” The tower tumbled, clogging the air with debris, which hurt so much to breath that Mr. McNally said he thought about shooting himself with the gun of the officer in front of him. When the dust filtered down, flames flared up in the chasm of the customs building and Mr. McNally realized the difference of ten feet spared him, and not his longtime partner Det. Claude Richards, whose body wasn’t found until Easter. The second plane flew so close to Mr. Hussey that he swore he saw the faces behind the oblong windows. He watched computers, high heels and telephones knock down runners while guiding seniors out of the 42nd floor of 42 Rector St. Mr. Hussey told a coworker he was going to assist others, when the first tower crumbled, sending steel, glass and Mr. Hussey flying. Two days later he returned to the pit for sixth months. Mr. MacNamara is raising $10,000 on www.Kickstarter.com, a website that helps individuals raise funds for their projects, to finalize the film. He’s begun sending rough cuts to film festivals and distributors, including HBO Documentaries and National Geographic. He has his fingers crossed that it will make it into the Tribeca Film Festival and the Bronx Film Festival, which will be held at Lehman College where Mr. MacNamara studied for a semester or two.
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