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Story Notes
On November 20th 2014 Devin Reardon, a young Irish-American had just left the library on the campus of Florida State University where he was a student. It was a regular Friday night, he and his college mates were looking forward to the weekend. The normality of this regular evening was about to be shattered…
Alarms started to go off across the campus. A tannoy warned students to get back to their dorms, barricade the doors and take shelter. Horrifyingly they discovered from the social media on their phones that there was a gunman shooting students at the college. The shooter was at the spot Devin had just left.
Devin called his mother, Nadia, who was only a few miles away and told her what was happening. She switched on the TV. Terrifyingly the event was being carried live on the news networks.
In a strange quirk of fate, as Devin sheltered that night he knew that this was not the first time somebody in his family had feared for their lives on an American University campus. Because 27 years before, Nadia had almost died in an attack at the University of Florida.
Both mother and son survived the events that befell them. However, they lost something that they were about to appreciate the true value of – Their sense of security in the world. Eventually, both fled the United States for Ireland in search of safety. 2024
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In Search Of Safety"was narrated by Donal O'Herlihy, It was produced by Donal O’Herlihy and Kathy Fox. Sound was by Ciaran Cullen.
An Irish radio documentary from RTÉ Documentary on One - the home of Irish audio documentaries.
Story Credits