The haunting strains of Tβimse 'mo Chodladh (I am asleep and don't wake me) and Dorchas (Hope) rose from the ruins of the World Trade Centre yesterday, as Paddy Moloney of the Chieftains performed the traditional Irish airs on the tin whistle as a personal tribute to those who died.
The Chieftain founder played alone in the remains of Liberty Plaza where the twin towers stood, framed by wrecked buildings and with smoke rising from the smouldering rubble behind him.
His only listeners were a small group of friends, a few New York police officers, and his daughter Aedin. The delicate strains of the tin whistle were almost drowned out in the harsh discordance of sounds all around from mechanical diggers, cranes and trucks.
It was, nevertheless, a highly emotional moment, not least for the founder of the Chieftains himself. "Something drew me to come down and play," he said. "Music is not just mechanical, it is like a living thing, it starts to come into you, and that happened to me here."
Mr Moloney was in New York with the Chieftains to take part in a memorial service on Wednesday evening for Matthew O'Mahony (39), a merchant banker with Cantor Fitzgerald who died in the attack on the trade centre.
He recalled a similar experience which prompted him to pay a personal tribute at the site yesterday. That was when he played the tin whistle on Grosse-╬le, the island near Quebec where 6,000 Irish immigrants died from cholera in the 19th century - almost the same number as those who perished in the attack on the twin towers.
When he got the idea he asked for my help to get inside the militarised area. That, it turned out, was no problem. The police officer on duty at the command centre was Lieut Jim Cronin, whose grandparents came from Cork and who is a Chieftains fan.
The service for Matthew O'Mahony was held in St Ignacious Loyola Church on Park Avenue. The invitation to the Chieftains to play at the service came from his wife Lauren Murphy.