First funerals of Ireland explosion held as tight-knit community 'full of grief'
11 October 2022, 14:19 | Updated: 11 October 2022, 14:29
The first funeral services are being held today for victims of an explosion at a service station in Ireland that left 10 people dead.
Fashion designer Jessica Gallagher, 24, was the first to be laid to rest this afternoon at St Michael's Church, following Friday's blast in Creeslough, Co Donegal.
Mass for another victim – 49-year-old Martin McGill, who was originally from Scotland – will be held at the church later on today.
Hundreds of mourners attended the first service, where 10 red candles have been lit to represent the victims of the tragedy which has shocked the whole of Ireland.
Everyone who met Jessica knew her "radiant smile", Fr John Joe Duffy told the service as he expressed his "sincere and heartfelt sympathies" to the family.
A framed photograph of Jessica and a shirt she had been making, one of her first fashion commissions, were brought forward at the start of the service and placed on the casket.
Emergency services who took part in the recovery operation attended the service, and Ireland's president Michael D Higgins, and premier, Micheal Martin, were represented by aide-de-camps from the Irish Defence Forces.
In a message to the family, Fr Duffy said: "We would love to be able to put in our hands to your hearts and take away that grief and that pain that you are suffering this morning.
“But to even think of that would not be a sensible thing to do. Because in that void, in that grief, there you hold in your hearts Jessica.
“While we cannot take that pain away for you, we want to walk with you. We cannot feel your pain but we will walk with you in that pain because to even say that we feel that pain would not be right or not be fair to you, but we walk in that pain.
“The greater someone is loved, the greater that pain and that pain is so immense, and Jessica will forever remain in your heart, but she will also be with you, she will remain with you.”
Delivering his homily, Fr Duffy said Jessica “radiated a warm and positive feeling” to all who knew her well. The priest said she left ripples of “love, affection, kindness and warmth” wherever she went.
Fr Duffy said Jessica was “bursting with energy and imagination”, adding: “Everyone who knew Jessica knew that radiant smile. That radiant smile that would light up a room with that infectious warmth that flowed from her.
"She always brought that sun whether things were happy or difficult.”
He said she was a practical joker in the family and been known to put seaweed in people’s beds. The cleric said her success in life was based on “hard work and determination”.
“Jessica was of a slender stature, but very strong, very strong, in every way possible,” he said. “Strong in her own opinions, strong in her own self belief, in her determination."
Telling mourners how Jessica had friends across the world, Fr Duffy said: “Isn’t it appropriate for a girl that travelled to so many countries, that the hearts of so many people around the world are with you as a family.
“She took herself off to Paris to study fashion. She came to note in Paris and then she was given a place because of her exceptional talent to go on to study further in Shanghai. “It was only the start of greater things to come.
“No matter how far she travelled or progressed, the place she was proud of was her beautiful family home. She used Donegal tweed in her designs, which helped to get her to Paris, and it always remained a feature of her design. Donegal was in her heart.”
Ms Gallagher, who was due to have started her new job in Belfast on Monday, was buried at Doe Cemetery after this afternoon's mass.
The tight-knit community of Creeslough has been described as "full of grief", but Fr Duffy said the outpouring of support is “like a tidal wave lifting us and trying to float us out of the tsunami of grief”.
Candle-lit vigils took place across Donegal and in Londonderry on Monday. Books of condolence have also been opened in towns and cities across Ireland.
On Monday, the King extended his condolences to the people of Ireland following the “appallingly tragic” explosion. The cause of the blast has not been confirmed, but a gas leak is one theory.
The other victims were 50-year-old Robert Garwe and his five-year-old daughter Shauna Flanagan Garwe, who were in the shop to buy a birthday cake; 48-year-old James O’Flaherty; 14-year-old Leona Harper; 39-year-old Catherine O’Donnell and her 13-year-old son James Monaghan; 59-year-old Hugh Kelly and 49-year-old Martina Martin.
Mr O’Flaherty’s funeral will be at St Mary’s Church in Derrybeg on Wednesday morning. A joint service will be 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 on Thursday. Mrs Martin, a mother of four, will also be laid to rest on Thursday with a service at St Michael’s Church.
