Donegal prepares for funerals of petrol station blast victims
The County Donegal village of Creeslough and nearby communities are preparing for a series of emotional funerals as police investigate the cause of an explosion that killed 10 people in Ireland.
State pathologists were conducting postmortems on Monday at Letterkenny University hospital while Creeslough remained shrouded in grief after Friday’s blast at a petrol station and adjacent apartments.
Blast experts from the UK are to help the Garda Technical Bureau analyse the ruins of the Applegreen service station, which included a shop, post office and hairdressers. Police said initial evidence suggested an accident. There is speculation there was a leak from gas cylinder storage tank.
More details emerged about the victims. Jessica Gallagher, 24, a fashion designer who had studied in Shanghai and Paris, was to have started a new job in Belfast on Monday. She was visiting the apartment of her boyfriend, who remained in critical condition at a Dublin hospital. Seven others who were injured are being treated at Letterkenny.
Martin McGill, 49, was described as a dedicated carer for his mother. He will be the first to be buried after a funeral mass at St Michael’s church in Creeslough on Tuesday. James O’Flaherty, 48, a married father of one from Sydney, Australia, is to be buried in the village of Bunbeg on Wednesday. Other funerals were expected later this week.
Martina Martin, 49, a mother of four who worked in the petrol station shop, was remembered as warm and generous. “A friend to all, a cheery word and always a smile, to her co-workers she was a dear friend, and to the younger staff members she was their work mammy, minding them,” a friend, Julie Wilkinson, posted on Facebook. “May her kind gentle soul rest in peace.”
The youngest victim was Shauna Flanagan Garwe, five, who died with her father, Robert Garwe, 50, as they chose a birthday cake for her mother. The other victims were: Leona Harper, 14, Hugh Kelly, 59, Catherine O’Donnell, 39, and her 14-year-old son, James Monaghan.
A rosary is to be said at 10pm every night this week at St Michael’s church, where 10 red candles have been lit. Vigils and condolence books have been organised across Ireland.
The taoiseach, Micheál Martin, and other political leaders visited the village at the weekend. Pope Francis sent a message expressing hope for healing and consolation. “His Holiness implores the divine blessings of consolation and healing upon the injured, the displaced and the families coping with pain of loss.”