Creeslough: Crowds turn out for vigil as people urged to talk about tragedy

The village of Creeslough is preparing for the first of the funerals of the 10 victims who died after an explosion at a petrol station on Friday.

The first funeral will be that of Jessica Gallagher (24), a fashion designer. Her funeral will be held at 11am on Tuesday, followed by the funeral mass of Martin McGill (49) at 2pm. James O’Flaherty (48) — a married father of one originally from Sydney, Australia, but living in Dunfanaghy — will be buried following a funeral on Wednesday at St Mary’s Church in Bunbeg. Further details of the funerals for the other victims have yet to be announced.

President Michael D. Higgins will not attend Tuesday’s funerals because he will be in Strasbourg addressing the Council of Europe. He will be represented by his aide-de-camp. He will be in Donegal from Wednesday to attend all the rest of the funerals of the victims and to meet all of the families as well as emergency services.

Archbishop Eamon Martin, visiting Creeslough, said he was “stunned by the tragic and horrific” explosion. The Archbishop of Armagh said: “I think like many people all over the country and all over the world we’ve been stunned by the tragic and horrific events here at Creeslough on Friday afternoon.

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“I wanted to come here to express my concern, my love for the people here and also our deep gratitude to so many people who helped particularly on Friday evening and on Saturday to try to do what they could to recover, to rescue and to comfort all of those who are grieving or were injured.”

The enormity of the service station explosion tragedy is beginning to hit people in the Co Donegal village of Creeslough, a local priest has said.

Father John Joe Duffy described the realisation of the full scale of the tragedy starting to sink in as the first of the 10 victims was brought home.

“People are full of grief. That numbness and shock and that adrenaline you get in those immediate aftermath hours is beginning to wear off, and the enormity of the tragedy is becoming clearer and clearer,” he told the PA news agency.

“As the first victim of the tragedy was brought home you saw people along the road and candles being lit along the road, and when you saw a beautiful young person coming home… it just began more and more to dawn on people.

“That sadness in strong grown men, there is a pall of sadness… we’re managing to cope somewhat because of faith and the support we’re getting… the faith that is in this community, and the togetherness of community and strength of community and people supporting each other.

James O’Flaherty (48), Jessica Gallagher (24), Martin McGill (49), Catherine O’Donnell (39) and her son James Monaghan (13), Hugh Kelly (59), Martina Martin (49), Robert Garwe (50) and his daughter Shauna Flanagan Garwe (5) and Leona Harper (14) all died in the blast.

Vigil

On Monday night crowds of people turned out in Letterkenny for a candlelit vigil. Photographs of the 10 victims were placed in the middle of Market Square along with candles.

People were urged to talk about the Creeslough tragedy as the horror of the explosion continues to sink in.

Gerry McMonagle, one of the directors of the Letterkenny Community Development Project (CDP), thanked attendees for turning out, and said it will be a solace to the bereaved families.

Many in attendance held candles during a moment’s silence, and placed the candles beside the photographs afterwards.

After the gathering, Mr McMonagle said it had been a powerful display.

“I think this is what people need after such a tragedy to try and process it. This was an awful incident, I think the randomness of it, it could have happened to any one of us, and that brought it home to people,” he told the PA news agency.

“It’s very important at times like this to have an outlet, it’s very important to talk to our friends and family about what happened, such a tragic occurrence that had reverberations right across our local community.

Little Gem

The parents of 14-year-old Leona Harper have spoken on local radio about the painful wait for the recovery of their daughter’s remains and of how she will be missed.

Donna and Hugh Harper told Highland Radio they had been treated “from start to finish” with nothing but respect. Ms Harper paid tribute to the digger driver who worked tirelessly to find Leona. “He didn’t stop until he got her. “It was 24 hours before we got her. She was the last taken out.

“The doctors and everybody were amazing. They treated the whole thing from start to finish with nothing but respect”.

After the explosion on Friday afternoon, the Harpers had a distressing wait, and they were initially told that their daughter was trapped in the building but also that there was a possibility that she had been removed to hospital.

Mr Harper described his daughter as “a little gem”.

“She was very outgoing, very friendly, a lovely person. She was very quiet and laid back. She loved life, she loved the outdoors, walking through fields, going fishing, spending time with her friends, going to car shows.” Mr Harper said that like everyone else would say of their daughter “she was very special”.

“She’s going to be sorely missed”.

The aunt of Jessica Gallagher has told of her niece’s great pride and love for her locality. Speaking on Highland Radio, Dolores Gallagher also thanked the emergency services, neighbours, doctors and the families of other victims who had contacted them to offer their support and condolences.

Dolores Gallagher said that it was obvious from the photographs that Jessica had been “the most beautiful young woman”.

Her niece was very artistic and had just qualified as a fashion designer and had been due to start her new job in Belfast today, Dolores Gallagher said, adding her niece had also just completed her first commission. “She was so proud of and loved her locality. She loved Creeslough so much.

“When she was a student in Paris one of her assignments was to work on something from home and she produced a beautiful picture of Muckish in the moonlight. We took her remains home yesterday in the moonlight.”

“But we’re now moving into this period of private grief and private mourning. The media have been so respectful just to give the family that space in which to grieve.”

The Irish Red Cross has set a fund to help the community in Creeslough. The fund is being established with the support of Applegreen and An Post. The public can make donations at www.redcross.ie.

Books of condolences for the 10 people who have died have opened in Derry, Belfast and Dublin. Dublin Lord Mayor Caroline Conroy opened an online book of condolences from today Monday, October 10th, until Thursday, October 20th. All messages of sympathy will be printed and forwarded in a book to Donegal County Council.

Meanwhile, Donegal-based Brendan O’Connor, president of the Garda Representative Association (GRA), said no level of training could have prepared gardaí for what they experienced in Cresslough at the weekend.

Gardaí had a dual role to play in such circumstances — to provide support for the community, but also to conduct a full investigation, he told RTÉ Radio’s Today with Claire Byrne show. Supports would be put in place for members of the force, but they “haven’t drawn breath yet” so it would be some time before they could avail of them, he added.

[ Creeslough tragedy: Investigation bolstered by additional gardaí ]

[ Creeslough grieves for seven adults and three children killed by blast ]

Mr O’Connor said that the force could not have done anything on Friday without the mobilisation of the community, adding everybody played a part through their collective efforts.

There were a lot of people working behind the scenes all weekend, “not just the people in the yellow vests”, he said.

The real heroes were the construction workers and farmers who rallied quickly to provide the equipment to help with the rescue efforts. It was very dangerous, “those people risked their lives” to create the environment where the rescue services could do their work, he explained. “I cannot stress the importance of the work they did.”

There was nobody in the village who had not played a part in the wake of the explosion, he said.

Meanwhile, Donegal singer Daniel O’Donnell was at the airport in Chicago about to board a flight to Dublin when he heard the breaking news of the explosion in Creeslough. By the time he arrived in Dublin he learned of the full scale of the disaster, he told the Today with Claire Byrne show.

“Everybody knows somebody in Donegal. Ireland is like that,” he added. At the airport he met a young woman who told him that her husband’s first cousin was one of the victims.

The singer attended a service of remembrance in Dublin on Sunday night that consisted mostly of music and meditation. There were 10 candles on the altar representing the 10 victims.

“All we can do is pray for them, that’s all we can do at this time.” - Additional reporting PA