Billy Kennedy: I think America is the world’s greatest nation — and I was there on September 11 2001

The veteran News Letter writer BILLY KENNEDY has travelled to the US 60 times. Here he recalls being in Tennessee with a group from Northern Ireland on 9/11:
The Ulster Scots group in Knoxville pictured on September 11 2001. In the middle in a blue shirt holding the document is the late Lord Laird, his wife Carol to the right of him. Above them, the bearded man is George Holmes, who was culture director at Ulster Scots Agency. Billy Kennedy is partly obscured behind the man in the hat, his wife Sally is in white trousers immediately to the left of the man with hat. Sally died on ThursdayThe Ulster Scots group in Knoxville pictured on September 11 2001. In the middle in a blue shirt holding the document is the late Lord Laird, his wife Carol to the right of him. Above them, the bearded man is George Holmes, who was culture director at Ulster Scots Agency. Billy Kennedy is partly obscured behind the man in the hat, his wife Sally is in white trousers immediately to the left of the man with hat. Sally died on Thursday
The Ulster Scots group in Knoxville pictured on September 11 2001. In the middle in a blue shirt holding the document is the late Lord Laird, his wife Carol to the right of him. Above them, the bearded man is George Holmes, who was culture director at Ulster Scots Agency. Billy Kennedy is partly obscured behind the man in the hat, his wife Sally is in white trousers immediately to the left of the man with hat. Sally died on Thursday

The United States of America is a country very close to my heart.

As an Ulsterman I take great pride in the historic and cultural legacy hardy people from these shores left on American soil from the early 18th century over a span of several hundred years.

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For me, America stands out as the greatest nation in the world, the pinnacle of democracy and upholder of faith and freedom.

Billy Kennedy with former Knoxville Mayor and Tennessee Governor Bill HaslamBilly Kennedy with former Knoxville Mayor and Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam
Billy Kennedy with former Knoxville Mayor and Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam

Recent events in Afghanistan may have tarnished in some respects how America may now act on the global stage, but it remains the undisputed leader of the free world upholding sound values that have been developed and set in stone for centuries.

Twenty years ago, the solid fabric of American life was viciously attacked by those who would seek to extinguish the flame of democracy with hellish methods which resulted in the deaths of 2,977 innocent people and injury to as many as 6,000 others.

The Islamic terrorist attacks on prime buildings in New York and Washington took violence on humanity to a new level.

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Over a span of 28 years from 1993, I have made about 60 trips to the United States to research for a series of 11 books telling the story of thousands of 18th century/early 19th century Ulster-Scots who migrated to America in pursuit of a new life and, over generations in their move west from sea to shining sea, helped create the distinctive American psyche and upstanding nation-building ideals that bear testimony to a free and unfettered people.

The group was at the Ulster-Scots Ramsey plantation house when news was emerging of the attack on the Twin Towers in New York. "It became apparent from the reaction of  guide staff at the house that something was amiss. A small group was gathered around a television monitor; they looked shocked"The group was at the Ulster-Scots Ramsey plantation house when news was emerging of the attack on the Twin Towers in New York. "It became apparent from the reaction of  guide staff at the house that something was amiss. A small group was gathered around a television monitor; they looked shocked"
The group was at the Ulster-Scots Ramsey plantation house when news was emerging of the attack on the Twin Towers in New York. "It became apparent from the reaction of guide staff at the house that something was amiss. A small group was gathered around a television monitor; they looked shocked"

My close empathy for the US is personally solidified by being awarded honorary citizenship of four American cities — Knoxville, Tennessee; Louisville, Kentucky; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Newnan, Georgia.

On one of those trips, accompanied by my wife Sally and 15 others in a group from the Ulster-Scots Agency, the tragic 9/11 horror unfolded.

We were in middle backcountry America, albeit hundreds of miles from the scenes of the tragedy — in the city of Knoxville in the volunteer state of Tennessee, a region where Ulster-Scots were first frontier citizens 200 years earlier.

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Knoxville is 700 miles from New York; Washington 500, but being in America that day had a significant impact for all of us, It was a day we would not forget.

We were at the start of our 10-day sojourn in Tennessee and the Carolinas and on the Tuesday morning (September 11, 2001) we were up and about early for the first leg of a busy itinerary in Knoxville, a progressive industrial city nestled along the Tennessee river valley and in the picturesque foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains.

Leading our group was the late Lord John Laird of Artigarvan, chairman of the Ulster-Scots Agency and a man imbued with immense pride at the remarkable achievements of illustrious forebears who crossed the Atlantic, many in basic wooden sailing ships through the 18th century.

Our first stop was on a guided tour of the Ulster-Scots Ramsey plantation house and estate just outside Knoxville.

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The Ramsey Presbyterian family were early settlers in Knoxville and they became very prosperous and influential in the development of Knoxville city and the wider Knox county.

We were at Ramsey House at about 9.30/10am (US Eastern Time, 2.30pm/3pm UK time) and it became apparent from the reaction of guide staff at the house that something was amiss.

A small group was gathered around a television monitor; they looked shocked and there was discomfort and increasing apprehensiveness about what was unfolding in New York and Washington.

Their anxieties were very quickly conveyed to members of our party, with the women folk in our company particularly seeking reassurance.

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Our stay at the Ramsey House lasted just over an hour and a half when it was time to move back by coach to Knoxville city, a distance of 15 miles.

There, the full horrors of the twin tower bombings in New York and the attacks on the Pentagon in Washington were now forming the narrative of a day of infamy.

Week-day business on Knoxville’s city centre shops and offices was grinding to a halt, as stunned groups embraced each other in solidarity and camaraderie in a desire to publicly uphold the ideals of their nation.

American flags (the Stars and Stripes) were being lowered to half mast on government and office buildings.

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And within our Ulster-Scots group, there was a sense of bewilderment and even fear over how we had become situated in the middle or got close to a major international terrorist outrage.

Later that morning, we were received by the Republican Party mayor of Knoxville Victor Ashe at a civic reception at the city’s municipal building.

The mayor extended a very cordial welcome to us all, clearly aware of the historic Ulster connection with his city. But as an American he appeared stunned by the unfolding events in New York and Washington.

Lord Laird, a seasoned politician and peer in the House of Lords, spoke in response expressing empathy with and sympathy to the American people.

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His comments were in Churchillian tone, assuring that democracy would prevail and that the global terrorist threat would be roundly defeated.

My wife Sally, like the other women in the group appeared frightened and she kept saying to me — “get me home”. But as the day progressed we all agreed that we should continue with our planned itinerary over the coming days.

The plan was we would not return home until Sunday.

Over the next two days, we covered a large part of East Tennessee; into the Great Smoky Mountains; visited Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge where Dolly Parton’s Dollywood theme park is situated; travelled up to the Cumberland Gap where the pioneering 18th century Ulster-Scots trekked into Kentucky; stopped at the David Crockett log cabin home along the Nolichucky River, and spent time in the town of Greeneville where Ulster-Scots President Andrew Johnson resided in the 1800s.

By the Thursday, we had moved across to Middle Tennessee and Nashville, ‘Music City USA’ — a teeming metropolis of a half a million population, twice the size of Knoxville.

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We visited some of Nashville’s main attractions and went as a group to a specially-arranged memorial concert at the Grand Ole Opry, the home of American country music.

The atmosphere was sombre in the Opry House, but American patriotism and pride instantly came to the fore as some of the leading Opry singing stars took to the stage.

Artistes who appeared that evening were Whisperin’ Bill Anderson, Jean Shepard, Connie Smith, The Whites, Ricky Skaggs, Little Jimmy Dickens, Lee Greenwood, Jim Ed Brown, and Vince Gill.

Lee Greenwood sang his patriotic showstopper ‘God Bless America’ and there were several renditions of the ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ national anthem, with the packed Opry audience, ourselves included, standing hands firmly clasped on our chests.

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The atmosphere evoked American defiance and unwavering patriotism, with particular reference to American reaction after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, an unprovoked incident that brought the United States into the Second World War.

Our unforgettable American sojourn was winding down and our main concern was getting home safely to the UK on our planned flight out of Nashville airport on the Sunday.

All passenger flights at major US airports had been cancelled in the immediate days after 9/11, but we were assured, thanks to contacts at a high level, that our return home plans would be met, and we left on the first and only flight out of Nashville — on the Sunday.

Looking back, our Ulster-Scots vacation in the US in September 2001 on what was to notoriously become known as 9/11 week had its low points, but it also had its high points, with members of our tightly-knit group left with some positive memories of our time spent together in the picturesque surroundings of Tennessee.

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Over the past 20 years, I have been to America on an annual basis and, for me, the appeal of time spent in East Tennessee and the other picturesque and welcoming regions of the American South never recedes.

Billy’s wife Sally sadly died on Thursday after a long illness from a stroke. He had written this article and wanted us to press ahead with publication

More September 11 stories:

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