An Aer Lingus official who flew to Gander in Newfoundland in 2001 to help co-ordinate the return of stranded passengers and a stricken Aer Lingus plane, says he cannot wait to come to An Grianán Theatre next week to see Letterkenny Musical Society’s production of Come from Away.
Speaking this week Dermot McShane, explained how, in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, when US airspace was closed down and planes diverted, getting everything back into motion again afterwards required huge coordination.
Dermot said that he had flown out to Gander as, what he called “a bag man,” with huge sums of cash to use to help pay for various expenses that had been incurred and with the logistics of getting people from the diverted Aer Lingus on to their final destinations.
“We went out two days after the event, 9/11 happened on a Tuesday, we were out on the Thursday evening. It was a rescue mission for Aer Lingus. We were going out to rescue our aircraft which had developed a technical snag heading into Gander, so we had engineers out with us to rectify an issue that had to be sorted before that plane could leave Gander again.
We also brought with us cabin crew and pilots for a spare plane that could go on to New York for passengers who still wanted to go on to New York as that was their destination on the day. On the outbound flight it was a really sad event, we had the parents of a lady from Artane who had been working in the North Tower. They flew out with us and we got them taken on to New York on a private aircraft.”
Having spent time in Gander at the same time as the passengers featured in the show, Dermot knows first-hand of the chaos and the kindness that had been unfolding over the five days featured in the show.
“There were mobile phones but when you landed in Canada, your Irish mobile phone or your American mobile phone didn’t work because we didn’t have that same inter-changeability between networks that we have today. There was quite an amount of confusion and a huge amount of fear among the people.”
But Dermot said, he just cannot wait to come and see how that story is shown in the uplifting musical that runs in An Grianán from Tuesday March 10 to Saturday March 14.
Nicola Shields, Gui Marques, Maria Rushe, Donal Kavanagh, Amy McClintock Declan Nee, Noel O’Donnell, Jenny Yourell and Trish Carlin pictured at rehearsals for Letterkenny Musical Society’s upcoming production of Come from Away in An Grianan Theatre from March 10-14.
“I am very keen to see it. It is just so interesting, having been on the ground in Gander, having seen first-hand the behaviour of the people who initially started off with fear and then some degree of relief that they’d have a place to stay and get fed.
“And then see the courtesy and kindness of the people of Gander to take those people out and organise barbeques, take them on trips and the like.
“It’s amazing that’s all been captured by the creatives who could write it into a story and make a musical from it. If you think about what is happening in the world today in the Middle East, so many Irish people are trapped in various cities in the Middle East, will stories come out of that to make for stories in 25 years-time, we don’t know.”
Show Director Maria Rushe who explained that there had been an upsurge in ticket sales over the final week, urged people to get online to book their tickets before it is too late.
“It is a phenomenal show, it is fast and funny and the music is absolutely beautiful, and with all that’s going on in the world right now, I know people will adore its themes of kindness and resilience at a time of terrible things.”
Come From Away runs in An Grianán Theatre from Tuesday March 10 to Saturday March 14 and some tickets are still available from the An Grianán website.
Donegal man who helped after 9/11 set for emotional theatre visit was last modified: March 5th, 2026 by Contributor
Tags: