Creeslough funeral: Cherish your family and life, son of explosion victim tells mourners

In his smart suit and black tie, his blonde curls wrestling with a wind sweeping down from Mount Errigal, young Hamish O’Flaherty was given a large wooden crucifix to carry as he walked into his father’s funeral.

Despite his heavy burden, the 12-year-old, whose world has been torn apart by the Creeslough explosion just days ago, had another job on his mind. At his own request, he wanted to speak a few words to those gathered at St Mary’s Church in Derrybeg.

Firstly, he wanted to talk about his Daddy, James, who read to him every night at bedtime. The latest book they were reading together just last week – Roald Dahl’s Going Solo – was among the items brought to the altar as a symbol of James’ life.

“He was a great man,” Hamish began.

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Creeslough funeral: "Be grateful for your life. It won't last forever."

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“He worked very hard and very long each day, no matter if it was around the house or his work.”

James O’Flaherty (48) from an Irish family who grew up in Sydney, also had “no shame”, Hamish told the congregation. Having no shame “is a great thing not to have,” he proudly added.

His Daddy, he expanded, wore a jacket “with a huge paint stain on the side of it”. In fact, he went everywhere with it. “He wore that jacket to the shops, to the movies, to the beach.”

Like his Daddy, who was daily grateful for his wife Tracey and their son, his funeral heard, Hamish too was grateful. Grateful to “all the people who have given and offered so many things” in recent days.

Emergency services “who were there within 15 minutes and who came to the wake to pay their respects” were singled out for particular mention.

But before he stood down from the altar he had something else he wanted to say, something “which I have learned in the past week or so”.

“I would like to say that we should be grateful: for your families – cherish them.

“Be grateful because they won’t be there forever. So use the time you have wisely, Also, be grateful for your life, because that too will not last forever. But be grateful, because you will be able to rest after your hard work.

“Be grateful that God has given us this life and all the things in it: our families, our friends, our home and this world, that is awash with hope and love.”

And with that he returned to his pew with his grieving mother Tracey, as the hundreds-strong congregation stood to sustained applause for the remarkable words articulated, so simply and so powerfully, by this young boy at the epicentre of a tragedy being felt around the world.

It was shortly after 10am the hearse set out from their family home in Rinclevan, outside the seaside village of Dunfanaghy, for the 30 minute drive led by Garda motorcycle outriders to the Gaeltacht church, where parish priest Fr Brian Ó Fearraigh spoke in both Irish and English.

Mr O’Flaherty, a fluent French speaker who lived for a time in Paris, had been learning Irish.

As the cortege passed through the neighbouring villages of Falcarragh and Gortahork, shops shuttered as schoolchildren, teachers, medical staff, retailers, office workers and others came out on to their main streets to say farewell.

Arriving at St Mary’s Church, Hamish’s friends from Faugher National School, in Dunfanaghy, dressed in their wine and grey uniforms, formed a guard of honour to guide the coffin inside. Parents standing over them clutched a little tighter.

President Michael D Higgins arrived. Taoiseach Micheál Martin was represented by his aide-de-camp while Seán Murphy, general manager of Letterkenny University Hospital, where Tracey works as a nurse and which treated many of the survivors, joined them.

Hamish, carrying the large wooden cross, led the coffin to the church door, as hands reached out to his shoulder.

Inside, Fr Ó Fearraigh said many could not make the long journey, including James’ brother John who, along with other family and friends overseas, were watching online. “In our togetherness, we are not alone,” he told them.

Mr O’Flaherty, an engineering director with electronics company Jabil, was a keen, if eccentric, cook, the priest recalled, referring to his “crazy omelettes” – “you’d never know what you’d find in one of his omelettes”.

He had many interests, not least golf, but rarely played since he settled in Dunfanaghy, despite the nearby links course. James once asked Tracey why he would be off golfing when he could spend time with her and Hamish, Fr Ó Fearraigh said.

Mr O’Flaherty was a “man of honour, simplicity, honesty and fairness”, he said.

The family’s last holiday together was in August, to Legoland, in Germany. On Sunday, Hamish gifted Fr Ó Fearraigh a few blocks of his Lego in a satin purse. The priest said he could make a H for Hamish from them, a T for Tracey and a J for James.

Also, he could make a cross from the six red blocks.

Hamish had the large crucifix to carry back out to the hearse again before the burial. His school pals reformed their guard of honour.

Hamish stood with the cross, head bowed for a time at the rear of the hearse. Then he got in the back seat, beside his Daddy, before it pulled out for Magheragallon cemetery.

The explosion is being treated as an accident, but the reason for the blast as not yet been ascertained.

Two of the 10 victims – Jessica Gallagher and Martin McGill – were buried after funeral Masses in Creeslough on Tuesday.

The victims were aged from five to 59. The other victims were Robert Garwe (50) and his five-year-old daughter Shauna Flanagan Garwe, who were in the shop to buy a birthday cake; Leona Harper (14); Catherine O’Donnell (39) and her son James Monaghan (13); Hugh Kelly (59); and Martina Martin (49).

A joint service was held for Ms O’Donnell and her son James at St Michael’s in Creeslough on Wednesday afternoon.

Ms Harper’s funeral will take place at St Mary’s Church in Ramelton, Co Donegal, on Thursday.

Mrs Martin, a mother of four, will also be laid to rest on Thursday with a service at St Michael’s. Mr Kelly will be buried at St Michael’s on Friday morning.