Creeslough: ‘We just want to know what happened, how it happened and why it happened’

Ordinarily, Christine Evans would have been out for a smoke just after 3pm on October 7, 2022.

However, the deli counter at the Applegreen complex in Creeslough was readying for a huge influx of trade from the Donegal Harvest Rally the following day.

Ms Evans was packaging ham when, at 3.17pm, an explosion tore through the complex.

Ten people, aged from five to 59, were killed.

Others, like Ms Evans, survived by the grace of God. She recalled hearing “an unmerciful bang”.

Chaos ensued as people scurried for safety.

Ms Evans lived in an apartment at the complex. Had she been in the apartment, she would have been among the dead. Jessica Gallagher, a young student who was set to start a new life in Belfast just days later, was in her apartment when she was killed.

She told of seeing “complete destruction” at the front of the complex and a “great big hole” in the place she called home.

“I wasn’t out smoking that day because we were so busy . . . Had I been standing out having a cigarette that day I would have been killed.”

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Her work colleague, Martina Martin, was not so fortunate. The 49-year-old was tragically killed in an explosion that rocked the small north Donegal village.

It is a community and a people still reeling amid a search of answers that reached a crescendo last week when seven of the families, via a legal representative, called for a public inquiry.

How an ordinary Friday in Creeslough became extraordinary remains shrouded in questions. 

A gas leak is suspected as being the cause of the explosion although a garda investigation has had over 1,350 lines of inquiry and taken almost 1,000 statements. Four people have arrested in connection with the explosion, but subsequently released without charge.

This Monday marks two years to a day that is - and will be forever - etched on the minds and hearts of those affected. 

Ann Marie Boyle was working on a ward close to the emergency department in Lettekenny University Hospital, but finished early on October 7, 2022.

Having encountered a raft of first responders making their way to Creeslough, she was on alert; a major incident would necessitate her being called back to the hospital.

Ms Boyle had just dropped her grandchildren off in Ballybofey when she took a phone call from her brother.

While the message was clear, the words still seemed jumbled. “There’s been an explosion in Creeslough and Catherine and James were there”.

Catherine O’Donnell (39) and her son James Monaghan (13) were caught up in the tragedy.

Ms Boyle’s two brothers were at either side of a cordon that was hastily erected by emergency services close to the site of the explosion on the N56.

“They could see Catherine’s car,” Ms Boyle says. “I went to the hospital. I gave my colleagues and Gardaí descriptions of Catherine and James.”

The longest of nights followed as they hoped, waited and prayed. She checked in regularly, in the faint hope that someone might bring news of any kind.

Just before 7am the following morning, a garda informed her that the bodies of Catherine and James were recovered from the rubble. A process of formal identification had to be completed and the grieving began.

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“Catherine was my sister, she just loved life and loved enjoying life,” she says. 

Áine Flanagan’s birthday was on October 5, just two days beforehand.

Her partner Robert and daughter Shauna headed off to buy a birthday cake to make the occasion on the Friday afternoon.

Áine was doing housework when a loud bang shook the place to such an extent a picture fell from the wall.

Robert and Shauna were given a lift to the shop by Hugh Kelly, a farmer from Castledoe. Mr Kelly was waiting outside.

All three were killed, as was Martin McGill, a local man who had popped in to use the ATM while his food order was cooking in a nearby takeaway. 

The bodies of Robert, a native of Zimbabwe, and Shauna were found in an embrace by those who pored through the debris.

Families gather at a memorial service on the first anniversary of the Creeslough explosion

A Volvo car was visible on the forecourt of the complex in images that were beamed around the world in the hours that followed. Major news bulletins told the story in households from Ards to Auckland. 

James O’Flaherty, the owner of the Volvo, was among the 10 dead. 

His 12-year-old son, Hamish, miraculously escaped even serious injury. Just as the explosion tore through the complex Hamish, who was sitting in the car, leaned forward to pick up something he had dropped.

He was that close.

Leona Harper, a 14-year-old, was on her way to a friend’s house for an end-of-week sleepover and was in the shop choosing an ice cream.

Leona’s body was the last to be removed from the wreckage the next morning.

Her family - like the others - have plenty of questions but, so far, no answers. 

"Leona had a right to life and she deserved that right for life,” her mother, Donna, says. “It was all taken and stolen. All her hopes and dreams taken from her and our hopes for her as a daughter, for her life, going forward, it's all been taken away from us.

"I ask myself questions about the last moments of her life, hoping that she wasn't looking for her parents and that leads to the question: was this preventable?

"Can we stop this from happening again?”

Almost two years on, the bereaved families feel stuck at something of an impasse.

“We are just muddling along and muddling along,” Ms Boyle says. 

Last week, families of seven of the victims gathered to call for a public inquiry into the tragedy.

“It shouldn’t have to come to this,” Ms Boyle says. “The Stardust families waited for 40 years before they got any proper answers. We can’t be left to wait for 40 years for answers.

“We just want to know what happened, how it happened and why it happened.”

Five-year-old Shauna Flanagan-Garwe and her father, Robert Garwe (50) lost their lives, as did Catherine O’Donnell (39) and her 13-year-old son, James Monaghan. Leona Harper, aged 14, and Jessica Gallagher (24) were killed along with shop assistant Martina Martin (49). James O’Flaherty (48), Martin McGill (49) and Hugh Kelly (59) were the other victims of the horrific explosion.