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LAST UPDATE | 8 Feb 2023
A DOCUMENTARY ON the response to and immediate aftermath of the Creeslough explosion will air tonight, after some of the victim’s families expressed concern about the timing of the programme.
At least four families had asked for a TG4 documentary airing tonight to be postponed.
Ten people were killed in the tragic incident in the Co Donegal village on the afternoon of Friday, 7 October.
In a new documentary tonight on TG4 entitled Iniúchadh TG4 – An Craoslach, local people who were among the first on the scene will recount their experience of the explosion and its immediate aftermath.
Four families had been in contact with RTÉ today to ask that the documentary not be aired tonight.
However, in a statement issued this evening, a spokesperson from TG4 said: “Having carefully considered all of the important and sensitive issues raised with us, we have decided that the documentary Iniúchadh TG4 – An Craoslach will air on TG4 tonight.
“The documentary is about the ordinary people who assisted in the rescue at the scene before emergency services arrived.
“It contains interviews with some of those who risked their own lives to bring others to safety. The programme does not report anything about the victims other than what has already been reported publicly in the direct aftermath of the tragedy.”
Earlier today Hugh Harper, the father of 14-year-old Leona Harper was was one of the ten victims, told RTÉ that there had been a “lack of communication” with the families.
Speaking to Liveline, he added that he only heard about the documentary “very recently”.
While he said he knew it was “in the pipeline”, he added that he didn’t know that it was “going to be here so quick”.
“We just feel that this is far too soon, far too early, it’s far too raw for the families,” said Harper. “I can’t speak for all the families but I can only speak for ourselves really.”
He added: “The main issue is that, as far as I am aware, none of the families have been notified or contacted to say, ‘this is what is going to be aired, this is what is going to be said’.”
While Harper said he has no issue with those who have been interviewed for the programme, adding that he knows some of them personally, he said it is “the unknown that worries us”.
“I can appreciate that the programme wants to acknowledge the people and what they have done, but that’s not really an issue for me or my family.
“It’s the unknown, it’s the lack of communication. I wrote an email to TG4 [and received] no response. My wife was on the phone today to TG4 and they were very uncooperative.”
Harper also expressed concern about what footage might be used in the programme.
“I’m highly concerned about any images that’s going to be portrayed from the show,” he told RTÉ.
“My wife was on the scene very early along with the kids, other people were there; what video footage have TG4 got or what images have they got?
“I don’t want to wake up tomorrow morning with images circulating that we haven’t seen, that nobody has seen.”
While Harper said he has “no problem with TG4 making this documentary”, he added that the families should have been included in its production.
“Not to say what can go in it and what can’t,” said Harper, “but to know when it is going to air and what the content of it is going to be.
“If I was going to do a documentary about somebody, I would be looking for their consent. I would be keeping them up to speed and up to date with what the content is going to be and when it was going to be aired.
“It’s the timing and the lack of consideration and the lack of communication.”
Harper also questioned the impact the documentary could have on the ongoing investigation and called for its airing to be delayed.
The family of Robert Garwe and his five-year-old daughter Shauna Flanagan Garwe, both victims of the Creeslough explosion, made similar calls yesterday.
“We’re not looking for this not to be aired. We’re not looking to put this on a shelf to gather dust,” said Harper.
“If we had have been contacted during the production of it and somebody had said, ‘here’s some footage, take a look at it’, maybe we wouldn’t be sitting here having this talk about it.”
Harper went on to say that his family were “not looking to give consent” but rather “just looking to be included and acknowledged”.
“Would 12 months not have been a better time, rather than four months [after the explosion]? I’m not going to be watching this documentary. I’m taking nothing from this.”
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar told the Dáil earlier today that he would be reluctant to tell TG4 what to do but he thinks the broadcaster should consult with Creeslough families who are still in mourning.
In response to a question from Donegal TD Pearse Doherty, who asked Varadkar if he thought the timing was appropriate, the Taoiseach replied:
“I want to once again extend my condolences to the people of Creeslough, who I know are still mourning and for whom this tragedy is still very, very raw.”
“What I ask TG4 to do is to perhaps sit down with the families concerned, maybe consult with them and having done that, make a decision as to whether or not they’re going to postpone the airing of the documentary.”
“I’m reluctant as head of government to tell any broadcaster what they should or should not broadcast. I don’t want to get into that space.”
“But I do hear what the families are saying and I think we all feel their pain would ask at the very least that TG4 would sit down with their representatives and discuss the matter and hear their case and try to understand.
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Household charges, motor tax increases, alcohol increases, tax band widening, tax rate hikes, medical card charges, prescription fees increase, social welfare cuts, healthcare cuts, education cuts……… I don’t remember this in the famous five point plan.
ah John, thats cos the five point plan was not for the benefit of the ordinary man. it was a plan semi-formed to appease unions, investment banks and international bondholders. none of it was for u and me or our kids. we just pay and pay and pay.
You are 100% right RP. Hard to take though; I voted for change and I now realise it was all a smoke screen. I know cuts have to be made but FG and Labour promised other ways of doing it and we believed them and gave them a huge mandate. Only 4 and a half years of this government to go… :(
Less and less people paying more and more tax. Brilliant management style Enda.
Well said John and for all you people who voted them in ” I told you so” doesn’t quite say it !
But I don’t understand why they’re not looking at the ‘text message’ . In 2008 25m texts where sent per day in Ireland , with the ability of smart phones now it probably hasn’t increased that much now but do the maths all you nobs in the dept of finance and in Government if you put a tax on the text it will generate billions. I’m sure most people wouldn’t mind getting a few less texts to send for their €20 call credit less texts in your bundle if your bill pay.It’s better the being taxed to the hilt in everything else .We survived for years without mobiles surly a few less texts a month to send wouldn’t kill us.
I really think nobody should pay this charge EVER!!! They can’t put us all in jail.
Fair point! A campaign of civil disobedience is certainly in order! Who’s in?
Me. They can kiss my ___ if they think I will be paying.
Me! I’m in! in fact I think I’ll pas this onto my mortgage company as they own my house ( and my soul)
Great. It’s not a service they can withdraw from us. If we all return bill to sender, with a short statement of your choosing, I think we can show some solidarity on this one!
Any demands for payment sent to my address be met with a ‘Return To Sender’ sticker being placed over the address window and popped back in the post unopened.
Well im not paying them . What for ? And dont forget that this is just an INTERIM charge . They intend to up this considerably. So yes Iain civil disobedience is the only answer now. Im in !!!!!!
I won’t be paying either..
This charge is a pre-cursor to the water charges right?
Well.. I have a Constitutional right to bodily integrity. I did not give my consent to be medicated via the water supply. Most of our EU counterparts do not fluoridate as they feel it would be unethical to forcibly medicate their citizens in this way.
Not only that they deemed it economically unviable (our government spends millions pumping fluoride into the water) imagine what they could put into maintenance if they weren’t pissing those millions away on something most EU countries deem a health hazard..
Before anyone makes the same fundamental mistake our government did, the study that showed a 40% decrease in cavities referred to topical application (eg toothpaste). No such link has ever been established with ingestion, rather ingestion leads to fluorosis which causes mottled and can even destroy teeth.
If they want me to pay for water I expect the water to be clean and free from contaminants. Especially ones that are added by our government..
Good luck to them getting it off me!
How much more can people take this budget will be a huge tipping point for people
In normal circumstances ..ie when people had jobs…a house hold charge of €100 would have been grumbled about but paid by the majority. We are not in normal circumstances and people do not have the money to pay this extra tax or any other one.
What about cutting politicians pay NOW ? Bring their pay to realistic pay rates and forget perks. Live like the rest of us do and some understanding of how difficult or impossible life has become for the citizens of Ireland.
WE DO NOT HAVE THE MONEY TO PAY ANY MORE TAXES…when is the government going to ge this into their thick heads?
I love handing out money for nothing! especially when I don’t have any!
Let break it down as to what this charge is for? Sewage? No that was paid for in planning contributions to the council when the house was built, same too for water connection, street lighting, TV? UPC paid for their services, and RTE paid annually for the privilege of not watching them, bins, paid privately, I can’t think of anything, well there is a surprise! Anyone have any ideas?
Don’t tell me you didn’t pay for the oxygen in your home Iain… That’s an extra €50. It’s a bit like O’Leary inventing new charges listening to this government make up new “Taxes”
Iain, who do you think pays for the councillors expenses and junkets costs for “courses”. Then there are the councillors education grants. Oh and I forgot the annual allowance of € 17,000 a year. Then there is the Mayors car and driver. How could we live without any of these trappings?
One of these days they will be given some real powers and this of course will cost a lot of money.
EERRR let me think……..could be the corrupt banks that got themselves into the mess they are in through their own financial mismanagement
Not paying household charge. Can’t pay it sorry. At the moment I’ve only one left on the tightrope!!
No austerity in TD’S pay !!!! that should come first, what a shower of wankers , and champagne socialists, get down to your TD’S office and give him/her hell for what they are doing.
Not just td’s pay who is going after the pensions of all are ex ministers and Taoiseach. They should be cut to the minimum wage to see if they can survive on it. I mean if a sitting board member on Coillte is getting 297 thousand euro and an ex taoiseach can get over 300 thousand for doing nothing where is the justice. This government seems intent on bringing Ireland to its belly so we can’t even crawl along.
At this rate I like many others will not be able to afford to work anymore. It will cost more to go to work than not. Govt wanted to generate employment from what I remember but I don’t remember it been told it was jobs in foreign countries
A revolution anyone?
I’m free friday…
Meanwhile Biffo, 51 (?) years of age, a qualified solicitor, getting in excess of ?100k a year on a pension for sitting at home on his fat, gout laden arse.
Don’t forget the bold Bertie, who kicked it all off, claiming a pension of 152,000 plus secretarial expenses of over 100,000 and mobile phone expenses of over 3,000.
Maybe that’s why the Govt. doesn’t understand why we can’t pay all these extra taxes, “sure can’t they just claim them on expenses!”
But then, Bertie would think, as we’re all “cribbers and moaners” that we should all be heading off to “commit suicide”. Muppet!
Blood out a stone.. I weep, I truly weep. To be honest, I couldn’t give a flying **** about who can run for the
Now is the time to use our democratic rights and not pay this tax. I for one ain’t paying this. All these taxes for the fun the bankers had in the boom. Sorry no thanks.
totally agree!
I’d guess it will have to be billed. Local council can’t interfere with wages. Failure to pay will no doubt carry heavy penalties, jail, or both. It will be enforced with an air of fear and intimidation. We are nothing more than serfs to our local and political masters.
If we dont pay it and are jailed at least we will be guaranteed 3 meals a day, central heating and free education….think we will all go down that path….we cannot afford to live outside in society at this rate.
Take a look at article 40 of the constitution..
You have a right to bodily integrity. If this is the precursor to water charges the fact that they forcibly medicate us with a substance that has even been implicated in serious health conditions means that the state may be doing us harm and violating that right.
Most of our EU counterparts do not do this for these precise reasons.
If the government wish to waste millions fluoridating our water that’s their lunacy, but they cannot expect us to pay them for the pleasure..
With the amount of people signed up to the can,t pay/won,t pay campaign and more to follow once this hits home for people in the new year. the powers that be. are gonna have a battle on their hands.
if they send it out in a bill, i’ll be passing mine on to the bank, they own my house a whole lot more than i do, or will for a long time!! its time for EVERYONE to hit the streets! seriously
Anybody know how they plan to collect the household charge? Will it be similar to TV licence or taxed at source? If its not taken at source, the can sing for it!
They can do a full song and dance act with a troupe of travelling Amazonian fiddlers as far as I’m concerned David. A ‘Return To Sender’ sticker on an unopened letter it is the only thing I’ll be giving them.
What Charges taxes etc will be introduced next year and the year after to bring down the deficit??? We are screwed there will soon be no money left to take off people??? What ever happened to the “yes for jobs” when voting on the Lisbon Treaty? FG Labour as well as FF have sold us a dud. We are on the outer edge of Europe and those in the inner sanctum (Germany/France) don’t give a sh1te about us so long as they save their precious euro that is hugely beneficial too them. Phil Hogan was like a sneering condescending pr1ck last night telling us that by introducing indirect taxes the Govt was giving us a choice… If we don’t buy cars fuel electrical goods in fact if we CHOOSE not to spend we worsen the crisis!!! Damned if we do completely screwed if we don’t… 18 more months till next General election!!!
I hope Bertie, Champagne Charlie and Biffo are enjoying their €200k breakfasts when they read where they have brought the country to.
A campaign of civil disobedience is correct – to the houses of the FF ministers who get us here, to demand they hand back pensions and large payments received
here here. They are not better than the criminals who are behind bars……..where they should be…
living on bread and water.
Whatever about the household charge please tell me we’re not really going to let any yahoo that can collect 10,000 signatures run for president. Was the last campaign not nutty enough for people?!
Good point there Helen…. The Bank really own the house until the mortgage is paid off…. So let THEM pay it! Ah.. if only that’d work…. It’ll be like the t.v. licence. Get letter requesting payment in the post. Failure to do so will result in fine and or imprisonment blah, blah, blah. Bastards.
they sure are! They won’t be getting it from this house anyway!
Why is it necessary to change the rules for nominating candidates for President. Reducing the age limit to 18 will pander to the cult of personality and, as I recall it, the only people seeking nomination and failed were those who went down the party selection route.
Peter.. that’s because you had to tug your fetlock at a bunch of senators or county councils to win points to win prizes, sorry a nomination…. this new addition allows you to get 10,000 signatures and avoid all the political party crap (oh I wonder if I can I say that word)
frankly anything that removes the Fine Fail, Own Goal and Laboured strangehold is a step in the right direction
Hmmmm….. Half my comment is missing.. Feck it.. Not typing it again.
Just to give a further comment, just recently 350 people from Donegal have given a resounding ‘NO’ to the proposed household and septic charge, at a public meeting at the Central Hotel held by the Can’t pay Won’t pay campaign, we got 350 to sign up for non payment for these charges, In Offaly the campaign group canvassed one housing estate knocking in doors asking people to sign up for non payment of these charges, out of 200 houses in that estate, 193 signed up to non payment, so if you get a knock at your door about being asked to sign up for non payment of these charges, sign up, if you get a leaflet in your letterbox about a public meeting in your local area, attend the meeting and sign up for non payment.
In regards to the property tax, for anyone that,s opposed to it, there is a national boycott campaign being built that,s underway, we have already held many succesful meetings around the country in galway,cork,waterford, donegal, kilkenny, …where the majority who have attended these meetings have agreed non payment is the only way to go,and remember if you decide to boycott it and not pay it, you won,t be by any means on your own, there are others like minded people who feel the same way, who have signed up to this campaign, check your local newspapers for meetings in your local area.
Log onto nohouseholdtax. Details of meetings and contact phone nos.
At last a solid reaction……… well done, this gets my support!
You know, taxes are supposed to be for luxury items. Since when was having a roof over your head a luxury? If I need a car to get to my job, is that a luxury? Is having clean drinking water a luxury? We have taxes on food, is eating a luxury? If we keep on quietly accepting this, here’s what’s next…..BREATHING OXYGEN, that’s a luxury.
We do not have clean drinking water.
We have water and fluoride..
I like the idea of a return to sender sticker. If we could get everyone to do this it would be great. Any suggestions as to what exactly we should do after that?
Form resident associations. Band them together locally first. Then county wide, provence wide and nationwide. Strength in numbers!
Theres always the ‘Occupy’ approach, occupy council offices.
I would march the streets only I have two young children and another one on the way. I also have a job (yes, lucky I know.. for all the good it’s doing.. looking like many of us in employment won’t be able to afford to work anymore) so I for one can’t just drop everything and take to the streets…. Would it do any good? Not being a smart ass.. but genuinely.. If thousands took to the streets…. What would it achieve?
i have two children, 5 & 3, im almost five months pregnant, i go to college and i work, as you can see from my profile pic, i have marched..and so have my kids!
Hah! Not pay? The docile Irish have already taken far more “austerity” than it took for other societies to hit the streets en masse! Everyone will pay because in the end we’re a ‘me fein’ nation of hand over mouth moaners! As for a ‘tipping point’, a significant majority of the nation is flailing half way down the cliff………… lets hope they wake up before irreversible impact, ie when our modern day serfdom is a reality!
Don’t worry too much about the consequences for not paying. At the moment the local authorities do not have the man-power, systems etc. to collect the tax on second homes, let alone to collect the 100 euro household charge.
Don’t pay or stall paying till the last moment and I bet their systems will overload.
I met a very nice older gent on the bus today and we got talking about the state of the country.
He said this generation are lazy, we SHOULD be out on the streets.. He remembers the Gardaí having to hold back the people rioting for the government doing a lot less to them..
He asked did I attend protests, I admitted, being self employed and usually busiest on a Saturday I wasn’t able to attend as much as I would like, but do when I can.. He encouraged me to get out more. Our country needs it. He attends every one he can.
We need to listen to our elders, they have seen it all before. See how they didn’t take the medical cards fiasco lying down? We should be watching and learning. Remind the government of their job description.. CIVIL SERVANT.
Get your own wages down to an acceptable level and start earning it!!
have your say