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By Georgina Brennan, Contributor
September 12, 2001: After a 26-hour shift Brendan McCormack emerges exhausted out of the darkness and into another day. A Donegal man, who has lived in the U.S. for 17 years, McCormack is an ironworker.
Minutes after the collapse of the Twin Towers, he and other ironworkers from all over the city dropped their tools and leapt into action, crusading down to the effort at Ground Zero. “I hope I can make a difference,” he says. “I’m doing my job down there, I feel good that I can help.”
Hanging from buildings and bridges, ironworkers had a bird’s-eye view of the planes as they hit the Twin Towers, and they rushed to help. Assembling at the union hall on West 42nd Street, many grew frustrated as they tried to get to the site. Some, like McCormack, made it through. Once there they had to contend with a landscape of misshapen metal formerly known as the north tower. Billowing smoke clouded their vision and the smell of burning flesh and melt