“We knew that something was wrong,” Diarmuid McGuire says ,”there are lots of police in Paris all the time, but this was extraordinary.”
Diarmuid McGuire and his wife Pam Marsh had just finished dinner, when a motorcyclist told them they needed to go quickly.
“We talked to some other people in the street and learned that there had been shootings and that people were dead.”
They rushed to their hotel, and were able to notify their children that they were safe. Over the next few hours they’d learn the magnitude of what took place. The Eiffel Tower went dark, and the streets that usually bustled with activity were much calmer, but McGuire says the resilience of the city is what struck him most.
“People were somber,” McGuire says, “they were sad, but there was no fear in Paris.”
He says that alone, proves the terrorists didn’t win.
“Their only weapon is terror, their only tool is your fear and if they can’t make people afraid then they’ve failed.”
Diarmuid says they were able to catch their scheduled flight, and although security took much longer than usual, they had no issues getting home.
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