LOCAL PRIEST JOHN Joe Duffy, Bishop Alan McGuckian, and a group of teenage girls stand in a circle and join hands as they pray for the victims of the Creeslough explosion.

Archbishop Eamon Martin had been visiting the scene of the tragedy yesterday when he came over to console the group.

The Archbishop said words couldn’t describe the hurt, but that he wanted to “be here and be present”.

He added that the “beauty of human empathy and compassion” is evident all throughout the village since Friday’s explosion, which claimed 10 lives. 

The first of 10 funerals will be held this morning, when a service is held for 24-year-old Jessica Gallagher in St Michael’s Church in Creeslough.

This will be followed hours later by a service for 49-year-old Martin McGill in the same church. 

Connected

Speaking to The Journal, Father Duffy said he and Bishop McGuckian were praying with the girls “for those who remain in hospital, and the deceased and their families”.

“Some of those girls are related to some of the deceased and connected to them, and they just wanted to pray.

Those that are not comforted by prayer are being comforted by community, and many comforted by both. It is prayer and community that is carrying us.

The local priest has been visiting the homes of the deceased, and the families have been telling Father Duffy how proud they are of the response of the community.

But in addition to the response of the local community, Father Duffy said the bereaved feel “lifted” by the response of the nation.

“What really means so much to the community is that they know that the country, and even beyond, have their arms around us and are carrying us in this time.

“The amount of offers for help so far has been extraordinary. That help arrived immediately from locals, then from emergency crews from both sides of the border, and now flows from every corner of the country towards us.”

Power of community spirit

The praise for the community spirit in Creeslough may sound twee to some, but its power is palpable at the scene of the explosion.

Yesterday, reporters watched as a woman came up to the cordon with a bunch of flowers to add to the growing floral tributes.

At the cordon, she embraced a female garda and spoke warmly to her for a few minutes.

Nearby, the curtains billowed in the property on the cordon line where windows had been smashed from the impact of the explosion.

Its owner stood in the doorway, watching the woman and the garda embrace.

A woman and garda on the cordon line embrace yesterday.

He could be forgiven for growing weary of the media presence outside his now windowless property, but it’s quite the opposite.

“I know you all have a job to do,” he tells this reporter, “and it can tough for yourselves to report on it also.”

The front door to the house has been open wide for much of the time since Saturday.

There’s an open invitation to locals, the emergency crews, the gardaí, and even to the media to come in to make a cup of tea or to use the toilet whenever they wish.

It is typical of the generosity of the community that has enabled the tragedy to be told in the manner it has been so far.

Processing

There are many stories to be told from the day of the explosion.

Bernard McGinley was one of the first people on the scene and one of the last to leave.

He tore through the rubble with his bare hands and rescued a young girl from the debris.

McGinley is asked by myself and my colleagues in other publications to relive every detail of the incident, sometimes having to repeat himself and replay another horrible moment for a journalist who has just arrived on the scene.

But he could not be more giving of his time, and says to me afterwards: “I appreciate that you all have a job to do.”

McGinley was speaking while overlooking The Coffee Pod, the café at the foot of the disaster which is beginning to go back to something of a normal routine.

It became a hub for the emergency crews and also a media base for all of Saturday and Sunday.

The café also refused payment over the weekend.  

On Monday, it returned to normal opening hours after its mammoth shift to become a place for everyone to congregate and process the tragedy.

Surplus food and supplies donated to the café was then left at St Michael’s Church in the village for “anyone that needs it”. 

“It’s so random,” said Bishop Alan McGuckian in his homily on Sunday night about the tragic event. He was referring to an overheard conversation which had been playing on his mind.

In St Michael’s Church on the edge of the village, he remarked: “We ask, ‘why did this have to happen to here? Why us?’”

When asked how people of faith can make sense of this tragedy, Bishop McGuckian pointed to the 10 red candles that will burn throughout the week in memory of the 10 who died in the explosion.

“The symbol of these candles is, they are long burning candles that will burn day and night for a week. That speaks to the slow, long process of healing but it is not simple and we cannot expect it to happen quickly.”

Speaking to The Journal yesterday, Archbishop Eamon Martin was asked about the “random” nature of the explosion and the twists of fate that saw those people in the area at that time.

“I think we search deep within ourselves to find the good, the love, the joy of life, and to find something that will bring us stability and hope in the midst of so much randomness and seeming despair at times,” said the Archbishop.

That “something” for so many in Creeslough is their faith.

Standing at the cordon last night, Aifric McGlade was flanked by two others.

She too has been touched by the “randomness” of the tragedy.

“The randomness connects people to it, because the tragic accident could have happened anywhere,” she said.

But for McGlade, it wasn’t just an abstract thought.

“I was on my way to get milk (in Creeslough),” said McGlade.

“Two random events delayed me by minutes. I was going to see my mother and had to bring her milk.

“As I was getting into my car, a car pulled up and I saw a neighbour from years ago who delayed me by three or four minutes.

“I then phoned my partner who was going to the airport to fly to Germany. I was tempted to overtake a van on the way to Creeslough but I didn’t because I was on the phone.

“Even though you’re hands-free, you still just cruise behind the van just in case. So that delayed me too and I hung up the phone as I entered Creeslough.

“Looking back on my call logs, I finished that call at 3.19pm.”

Friday’s explosion occurred at around 3.15pm.

“Had I overtaken that van, I would have been there. And so many people have those stories.”