Higgins ‘walked with the Creeslough people and held a genuine heartfelt sorrow’

Outgoing Uachtarán na hÉireann Michael D Higgins provided “a great legacy” to Donegal communities during his 14-year tenure. 

This was never more evident than in the dark period of October 2022, when 10 people lost their lives following a devastating explosion at the Creeslough service station and adjoining apartment block.

Then-President Higgins was in Strasbourg and immediately travelled to Donegal to support the bereaved families and communities.

“Michael D was a great legacy to our communities,” Rev John Joe Duffy CC, tells DonegalLive.  “He walked with the Creeslough people and held a genuine heartfelt sorrow for all those affected.”

After arriving in Donegal, Higgins attended eight funerals - those of  James O’Flaherty (48), Catherine O Donnell (39), and her son James Monaghan (13), Hugh Kelly (59), Martina Martin (49), Robert Garwe (50) and his daughter Shauna Flanagan Garwe (5), and Leona Harper (14).

The first two funerals that week were of Jessica Gallagher, 24, and Martin McGill, 49 and although Higgins was only on his way home from France, he apologetically visited both families to pay sorrowful tribute. 

Higgins met with the emergency services involved. "As President of Ireland, I am very proud of them," he said. “It was a community of first-line services, each doing their very, very best and being able to engage with the public. It is something to be very, very proud of.”

Then, in December 2022, Higgins once again travelled to Creeslough as he showed concern for how the community was getting on. 

“He kept very much in contact, showing sincerity and genuine concern for all who were affected,” Fr Duffy says of the visit.

The Burtonport curate added of Higgins: “You came and walked with us, holding, comforting and consoling. Your warmth, kindness and compassion helped so much. You were kind, gentle, empathetic and inspiring. You held us and put your arms around us. 

“You were with us and for that I am so grateful and shall never forget your comforting presence. Thank you and Mrs Higgins for your continued contact over the last three years.

“Our country and the world stage will truly miss a great leader who showed care, kindness, concern and compassion. 

“On the world stage and at home, this great humanitarian showed his concern for the downtrodden and suffering people, addressing and challenging the world and us all to do better for peace, for humanity and for those downtrodden. 

“President Higgins is a wonderful, articulate and brilliant intellectual who could address the most challenging global issues and be one with any one of us anywhere he meets us in the country, showing wonderful humility and genuineness. He is not a President who does gimmicks or walks in front of us; he walks beside us.”

Nominated by the Labour Party, Michael D Higgins was inaugurated as the ninth Uachtarán na hÉireann on November 11, 2011.  Generally described as a left-wing socialist, in his tenure, Higgins focused on equality, justice, reconciliation, anti-sectarianism and anti-racism.

He served two consecutive terms in office, having received a strong mandate in the 2018 election. The 10th President of Ireland, Catherine Connolly, was inaugurated at Dublin Castle today.