Ten red candles to honour ten killed in Creeslough explosion

Emergency service personnel who had assisted in a gruelling and harrowing rescue operation were also present with the church packed to overflowing.

placeholder image — Emergency service personnel who had assisted in a gruelling and harrowing rescue operation were also present with the church packed to overflowing.

The Bishop of Raphoe, Alan McGuckian SJ, lit ten red candles at St Michael's Church in Creeslough, where parish Priest Fr John Joe Duffy says 'our hearts are broken'

Ten red candles will remain lit at St Michael’s Church in Creeslough for the next week.

Each one is in honour of the ten people who died in a horrific explosion that rocked the small north Donegal town to its core on Friday.

A little girl of primary school age has been confirmed as being among the dead. Four men, three women, a teenage boy and a teenage girl also lost their lives in the blast, which occurred on Friday at around 3.20pm.

Political and Church leaders converged on Creeslough.

An Taoiseach says 'The entire nation is mourning' as he visits Creeslough

Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar, Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald, Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O’Neill and SDLP Leader Collum Eastwood were among the attendance at a church service on Saturday evening.

The Bishop of Raphoe, Alan McGuckian SJ, lit ten candles in memory of the ten with the candlelit display to remain for a week.

“The strength of our community will carry us,” Fr John Joe Duffy, the parish priest, told the congregation.

“The closer we are as a people the stronger the sense of community, and nowhere is that sense stronger, in no place is there as strong a community as we have here in Creeslough.

“Our hearts are broken. We all sense a numbness, a disbelief that we are really experiencing this tragedy, that it is real.

“The grief we see in the young and in the old shows that this is a family that cares for each other, a genuine community.

“We suffer the loss, we all sense the pain. The days ahead will be difficult days. I wish there was some easier way, but unfortunately there is not.”

'It was like a bomb went off': Creeslough cafe manageress on a haunting Friday

Mr Martin met with members of the emergency services at the Applegreen service station, where the tragedy unfolded on Friday afternoon.

“The entire nation is mourning,” he said. “It is truly shocking and tragic.

“One is greeted with a terrible silence, reflecting an enormous loss on a scale that no-one can comprehend.”

A search operation at the scene has concluded and no further casualties have been located.

Eight other people were hospitalised, seven of whom are said to be in a stable condition at Letterkenny University Hospital. One person who was airlifted to a hospital in Dublin remains in a critical condition in a burns unit.

Dr Paul Stewart, who has been the local GP in Creeslough for 23 years, has said that ‘the work is only just beginning’, as the community comes to terms with immeasurable grief.

“It is going to take a long time for these scars to heal,” Dr Stewart said.

“We have lost ten friends, neighbours and loved ones and there are nearly as many in hospital.

“It was horrific. We had to wait. We knew that there were people who hadn’t come home. Waiting was the hard bit.”

Superintendent Liam Geraghty told a media briefing at Milford Garda Station that officers were ‘quite satisfied’ that there would be no further casualties. The deceased, he said, were all from the ‘North Donegal area’.

Post mortem examinations will be carried out on the bodies, which have been taken to LUH.

Gardaí are treating the incident as a tragic accident.

Emergency services were on site within ten minutes. They arrived to what was described as a ‘very traumatic and confused scene’.

Crews worked overnight on Friday to clear the rubble from the forecourt. They were aided by a team of specialised officers using cameras, listening devices and sniffer dogs.

Gardaí are working with the local coroner, Dr Denis McCauley, and liaison has been arranged with the bereaved families.

Liam McElhinney, the Chairman of the St Michael’s GAA club, told how he was in the complex just 45 minutes before a blast that has ripped the heart from the community.

“There were lotto sellers outside the shop and they had just left their post,” Mr McElhinney said. “I had left the shop at 2.30. It could easily have been me. It just wasn’t my time, I suppose.

“We expect to see these type of things in other places, but not in our wee community in Creeslough. You see things like this on tv and you just don’t expect it to come to your own door.

“We are in total shock. It will take days, weeks and maybe years to recover from this.”

Their flames - like the candles at the local church - will flicker through the darkness.