'They are beside you, they are in your heart and they are with you always'

Four children and their babysitter, who died in a house fire, were remembered today on the 40th anniversary of the tragedy in Letterkenny. 

On Saturday, April 26, a blaze at 65 Ard O’Donnell claimed the lives of Sharon (14), Joanne (12), Adrian (4) and Kevin O’Donnell (20 months), as well as Noreen O’Donnell (25), from Sessiaghoneil in Ballybofey, whose heroic last act in life was to return to the house in an attempt to save the children. 

Angela and her husband Joe O’Donnell managed to escape that morning, alongside their sons Philip (13), Patrick (8) and Joseph (5), as Letterkenny - and Ballybofey - stood still for the funerals two days later. A year later, Angela and Joe would welcome their own baby, Noreen, named after their cherished babysitter.

They moved to Leck seven years later, right across from the cemetery where Sharon, Joanne, Adrian and Kevin were laid to their eternal rest. Forty years on, Sadie recommended the Inishowen Gospel Choir for the anniversary mass, who provided a stunning backdrop.

The O’Donnells traditionally held anniversary masses in their family home, with Bishop Seamus Hegarty officiating and later in Derry when he moved, but at St Eunan’s Cathedral, they were visibly grateful for the townspeople of Letterkenny, Ballybofey and further afield for turning out.

Things were kept in check by Monsignor Kevin Gillespie from Gweedore, Fr John Joe Duffy of Burtonport and based in Creeslough - a distant relation of Joe or Joe 90 as he’s always been known, who is a native of Dungloe - as well as Michael McCullagh, who is also from Dungloe and now based in Knock, Co Mayo. 

“It may be 40 years but for you as families, it is a moment in time, a very short moment because it's nice that family and friends reminded us this is so very important for all the families and friends and the survivors to come together,” Fr Duffy said.

“The time does not change the pain of loss, time only helps us to walk with that pain and today is so very special that so many people have come once again into this Cathedral to wrap their arms around you as family. 

“Life around Leverkenny and everywhere 40 years ago was very carefree, doing the mad things that young people did back then. Thank God they're sensible today - like in those days they rode bikes on the top of school shelters, jumped the highest walls climbed the highest trees and pulled themselves up on ropes!

“Joe, coming from west Donegal, knew the Letterkenny people were much more adventurous, it seems. But that was life, life was very carefree and the children, the two oldest of the children, Sharon and Joanne, was part of that, part of that life, part of that fun.

“Living together as one big family, just as Joanne would have been about that morning to head to her swimming, the bus had been waiting on Sharon who was to go to a camogie blitz in Derry when a tragedy struck. Noreen was so very much part of your family as she was there for you and you for her at all times.

“When the tragedy struck and it was a great tragedy, a tragedy beyond words, a tragedy that cast a pain not only to the hearts of you as families but into the hearts of all who knew your family. Even those who didn't know your family, people here in this locality, here in Letterkenny. 

“People in other parts of the county were so very much touched by the tragedy; people all over the country were so very much touched, but it was you, each one of you, that had to carry that pain, that pain which is there, but a pain which you have learnt through time to cope with.

“How did you cope with that pain? That is only something that you know, but we do know because the one thing that has really touched me, Joe and Angela and Manus, was the gratitude that you were always given in your pain. The gratitude to a community that put its arms around you and helped you, the people who took you into their hearts, into their homes, and who, in the cloud of grief, put a shawl of care around you.”

Fr Duffy is central to the continued recovery of those from Cresslough, following an explosion that killed 10 people in October 2022. He recalled seeing Anglea, Joe and Philip, in the church there night after night.

“You continued to come there for that whole week quietly and you were just such a strength of support to me as you have been to so many people by your presence,” Fr Duffy said. “I want to thank you and thank your families and thank both families for that quiet presence.

“You have also used your own tragedy to highlight the importance of fire safety, that is your ongoing contribution, the ongoing legacy and the need to help give fire personnel every resource to whom you are also very grateful.”

Manus O’Donnell, the father of Noreen, and her sister Evelyn, were also in attendance and Fr Duffy spoke about the importance she had in Letterkenny

“Noreen worked up in the training centre and was in your house every weekend,” he added. “She was that type of person who looked after everyone. Your home was like her second home and everyone loved Noreen, and in turn. She had a lovely big smile. 

“She was always happy and she was someone who gave so much to you as a family but not only to your family but to many others that she met in life. Dear friends, as we know, Noreen went back up the stairs to try as she could to save the children when it was just panic and chaos, as one can imagine.”

Fr Duffy likened Noreen to Sister Clare Crockett, who was a charismatic Derry-born actress who abandoned a rising career in television to become a missionary nun, ultimately giving her life while serving children, before passing away in 2016, during a massive 7.8-magnitude earthquake in Playa Prieta, Ecuador.

“Many of you were there that morning, you know what it was like, I don't have to tell you,” Fr Duffy added. “We had in this county, you had in your families, Noreen, long before Sister Claire Crockett as someone who gave her life in order to try and to save others. She made the ultimate sacrifice and for that we will always be forever as you as a family are forever and truly grateful.”

Fr Duffy continued, speaking about Angela and Joe’s children, starting with Sharon, who, the day before the fire, had etched her initials onto a bench at Loreto Convent, and Joanne, who he said would’ve loved the choir in the Cathedral. 

“Sharon was the mother, the second mother in the house,” he said. “She always had a child on her hip I'm told and she was great fun at school, such a beautiful person, so well fondly remembered.”

“Joanne used to partake in the choir and was very athletic and she made her confirmation with Philip. She was into cross country, she was very studious and just had that lovely caring nature.”

Adrian, Fr Duffy added, was a “home bird” who liked to watch television and loved the Gremlins movie at the time, and little Kevin.

“The Gremlins was a big hit with Adrian and he didn't like the Gremlins, he liked the bad boy Gremlin,” Fr Duffy recalled. “And Kevin was the baby. Kevin was a very pleasant, a very happy baby who liked to be carried around and he was very, very contented and very loving.”

After the fire, with little counselling on offer, the family found Bishop Hegarty to be a true friend as they tried to knit their lives back together.

“Bishop Hegarty said to Angela on the first Christmas that he wanted to see a Christmas tree in the window,” Fr Duffy added. “He wanted to see light and to fill that window with light. You have filled your home with lights every Christmas in memory of your children.

You have the lights on the grave for the four angels of the testament, the guardian angels of your children. You, both of you, your families and your family have been lights to all of us, lights of inspiration. That it is important, Angela, as we said, to live for the living and give those who have gone to God because they have not gone far from us. They are beside you, they are in your heart and they are with you always.”