Creeslough: Dáil observes minute’s silence as tribute to ‘incalculable’ loss

TDs stood for a minute’s silence in the Dáil on Tuesday after they paid tribute to the 10 men, women and children who died in the Creeslough disaster in the north Co Donegal village on Friday.

There was a sombre mood in the House as Leas-Cheann Comhairle Catherine Connolly expressed her condolences as the first funerals, of Jessica Gallagher and Martin McGill, took place. She said that “words cannot express the pain or the grief of those who have lost family members, that loss felt by such a tight-knit community”.

Ms Connolly also paid tribute “to the bravery of the local people who helped the emergency services and assisted them in every way possible”.

[ Kind nature of Jessica Gallagher and Martin McGill recalled at funeral Masses ]

Taoiseach Micheál Martin, who visited the scene of Friday’s explosion over the weekend, named each of the 10 victims of the tragedy in the Dáil. He said the “women and men, boys and girls, representing everything good and kind and beautiful about Creeslough, Donegal and our country, were taken away in a tragic incident on a quiet afternoon”.

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Mr Martin said each death was an “enormous, incalculable loss in the lives of those around them”.

“This is a community ... people in deep sadness and mourning, devastated by what has happened, but as also a community of both strength and resilience, pulling together to support each other through this turbulent time,” a community “putting its arms around its bereaved”, he said.

Mr Martin said he met many people in the village “who shared their stories of the most extraordinary courage, commitment, heroism and love”.

“Stories of local people putting themselves at risk and doing everything humanly possible to save the lives of their neighbours in the aftermath of the explosion,” he said, adding that “words on their own cannot comfort the fathomless grief that so many will feel in the weeks and months ahead”.

He said: “What we can do and what I know we will do is to be there for them. We stand with the community of police and the people of Donegal, at home and abroad.”

Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said “on Friday our world stopped. Our hearts stopped as we learned the terrible tragedy that was unfolding in Creeslough, a tragedy which makes no sense and whose only lesson is pain and loss.”

“Since then we’ve seen the best of each other, a small country becoming one big community to search together, to grieve together and to heal together,” he said.

He said: “We send our condolences to all those whose grief is still raw and painful, and all too terrible to comprehend.”

“A nation stands with you, a nation mourns with you,” the Fine Gael leader said.

[ Fintan O’Toole: The more incomprehensible an event is, the greater our hunger for comprehension ]

Minister for Arts Catherine Martin, standing in for Green Party leader Eamon Ryan, said “such suffering has no doubt left a numbness but still the community rally as the first of the 10 funerals are held today”.

She added that “the mourning is only beginning”.

“We must honour those precious lives, support that broken community,” she said. “And we mourn together as a nation.”

Regional Independent TD Cathal Berry became emotional as he paid tribute to the victims and expressed “our heartfelt sympathies”.

Sinn Féin TD Matt Carthy said “while the nation was shocked by the tragedy that has scarred that village forever, none of us were surprised by the instinctive reaction” of those at the scene.

The community’s response has been immense, he said, as he paid tribute to the local community and its leaders.

“And on behalf of Sinn Féin, I want to pay a tribute to our emergency services north and south, to our gardaí, our firefighters, Civil Defence, ambulance personnel, doctors and paramedics, some of whom put their own lives on the line,” Mr Carthy said.

Labour leader Ivana Bacik said “our thoughts and sympathies are with the families and friends of all the 10 people who lost their lives so tragically, as well as with their broader community in Donegal”.

Social Democrats joint leader Catherine Murphy said the tragedy “casts a long dark shadow across the nation” and “an entire nation was impacted with a sense of shock and grief”.