{"id":406363,"date":"2026-04-19T08:41:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T08:41:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/406363\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T08:41:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T08:41:12","slug":"you-have-your-memories-in-your-heart-letterkenny-family-to-honour-lives-lost-in-fire-tragedy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/406363\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018You have your memories in your heart\u2019 – Letterkenny family to honour lives lost in fire tragedy"},"content":{"rendered":"

For most of the past 40 years, the O\u2019Donnell family marked the anniversary of their loss quietly.<\/p>\n

In the years after the April 1986 fire at their Ard O\u2019Donnell home in Letterkenny, private Masses were held at home, in the home of Bishop Hegarty in Derry, and later in Letterkenny.<\/p>\n

Next weekend, the remembrance will take a different form.<\/p>\n

On Saturday 25th April, Joe and Angela O\u2019Donnell, together with Philip, Patrick, Joseph and Noreen, will gather with family and friends for a 40th anniversary remembrance Mass at St Eunan\u2019s Cathedral in Letterkenny.<\/p>\n

The following afternoon, on Sunday 26th April, the Cathedral will host a musical tribute in memory of Sharon, Joanne, Adrian and Kevin O\u2019Donnell, and their babysitter Noreen O\u2019Donnell.<\/p>\n

When friends suggested having a commemoration and explained what they hoped to do, Angela began to see it in a new light.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was kind of apprehensive,\u201d she said. \u201cBut when they told me what they were doing, I thought it was a beautiful idea.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a celebration of their lives. It\u2019s not a sad thing and it\u2019s not morbid. It\u2019s a celebration.\u201d<\/p>\n

The celebration of their children and babysitter is woven with a grief that has never fully gone away.<\/p>\n

The O\u2019Donnell family tragedy unfolded on the morning of 26th April.<\/p>\n

Sharon, aged 14, Joanne, aged 12, Adrian, aged 4, and baby Kevin, aged 18 months, all died in the house, as did Noreen O\u2019Donnell, 25, from Sessiaghoneill in Ballybofey, who lost her life trying to save the children.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Angela and Joe O’Donnell with the memorial photo of their four children and babysitter Noreen O’Donnell, who lost their lives in the 1986 fire. Photo: Rachel McLaughlin<\/p>\n

It was supposed to be an easy Saturday morning, with no school and a chance for the family to have a lie-in.<\/p>\n

Angela still remembers one of the last things Sharon said the night before.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a glass door from the sitting room into the hallway, and when Sharon was going to bed she put her face to the glass door and said, \u2018Mammy, don\u2019t waken me early in the morning.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the last thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the next morning, everything had changed.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomebody said there was a fire, so we went downstairs. But we never got back up again,\u201d Angela said.<\/p>\n

The Chief Fire Officer happened to be just three doors away that morning, calling for a neighbour to go golfing.<\/p>\n

Joe and Angela tried to go back into the house, but were stopped.<\/p>\n

Baby Kevin had been in Joe and Angela\u2019s room, but Sharon had come in during the night, or early that morning, and taken him out to a room on the upper floor at the back of the house.<\/p>\n

Fourteen-year-old Philip was told to run outside to grab a hose, but the fire had taken hold.<\/p>\n

His younger brother, Patrick, who had been doing lifesaving at the pool at the time, remembered to get low to the ground and crawl. He told Joseph to hold onto his feet, and the two boys made it out together. Joseph, who was six at the time, was the youngest survivor.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were out, not a long time but it seemed like a long time, and somebody said the two boys were over in Josie and Eileen Gallagher\u2019s,\u201d Angela recalls.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wondered was there anybody else out.<\/p>\n

“But they were all up in the one room at the back of the house.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fire brigade arrived quickly. But there was another devastating problem.<\/p>\n

This is the part of the morning that still brings anger.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey opened the hydrants that morning in Lower Ard O\u2019Donnell and somewhere else in another part of the town, and nothing came out of them, only muck,\u201d said Angela.<\/p>\n

To this day, Angela worries whenever water outages happen in Letterkenny.<\/p>\n

\u201cI worry for the schools, I worry for the hospital. Because if the hydrants are not working, the fire brigade is not working.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ard O\u2019Donnell had suffered water supply problems for years.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019d go to turn the tap on at night, and there was nothing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Before the fire, Angela had gone from door to door gathering names in an effort to get something done about the local water supply.<\/p>\n

\u201cStrange enough, they built a water plant at the back of the house after the fire. Too little, too late,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Angela never blamed the firefighters themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t care how much money is spent on the fire service, they couldn\u2019t be paid for what they do. I would never begrudge the firemen equipment or anything they need, because they need everything they can get.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n

For all that happened, the heart of the 40th anniversary is about remembering the children and Noreen.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is about celebrating them. Even celebrating the survivors,\u201d said Philip.<\/p>\n

The Mass and tribute will be a moment too for Joe and Angela, and for the family that remained and grew after the fire.<\/p>\n

Joe and Angela\u2019s youngest, Noreen, was born the year after the fire and named in honour of the family\u2019s hero babysitter.<\/p>\n

Philip described the days in the aftermath as living \u201cday by day, minute by minute\u201d.<\/p>\n

Even growing up, he was often seen first through the tragedy.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could be met by a stranger down the street, and they could introduce you as the young boy that lost the brothers and sisters, not as Philip O\u2019Donnell.\u201d<\/p>\n

The family talks openly about their loss, but each grieved individually.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re either a talker or you\u2019re not. Everybody has their own way,\u201d said Philip.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Angela, Adrian and Joe Joe<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Sharon looking out at Joanne, Adrian and Joe Joe<\/p>\n

\u201cTime does help,\u201d Joe says. \u201cBut you don\u2019t forget, it\u2019s one of those things.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery special occasion is not the same,\u201d adds Angela.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re the first thing in your mind in the morning and the last thing at night.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have your memories in your heart, and you have your photographs.\u201d<\/p>\n

A portrait of Joe and Angela O\u2019Donnell with their seven children, taken by Dermot Donohue, sits on the mantlepiece in the family home in Leck. It was taken just a week before the fire, when Joanne and Philip made their Confirmation together, and Angela says the family were lucky to have it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could come in here to dust and I\u2019d find myself standing talking to them in the picture. I\u2019m the same when I go down to the graveyard. I tell them whatever happened that day.\u201d<\/p>\n

The children\u2019s place in the family has carried into the next generation too. Joe and Angela now have six grandchildren, and their home is busy with young ones coming and going. \u201cThe wee ones love coming down to the grave, to see their aunts and uncles,\u201d Angela said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The O’Donnell family grave at Leck, Letterkenny. Photo: Rachel McLaughlin<\/p>\n

Noreen the babysitter is at the heart of a memorial photo in the living room.<\/p>\n

Friendly with Sharon and Joanne, she was a regular presence at weekends and, Angela said, \u201cjust like one of the family\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe came in and just made herself at home. She was a lovely girl and it was a pity we lost her as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Noreen\u2019s family will also be part of this year\u2019s remembrance, with Noreen\u2019s sister Evelyn due to give a tribute at the Sunday event.<\/p>\n

As part of the Mass, personal items connected to the children will be carried forward, including a teddy bear that belonged to Kevin, notebooks that belonged to the girls, and small gremlins and E.T. toys linked to Adrian.<\/p>\n

Philip said it is especially important that Adrian and Kevin are remembered in this way.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe two wee boys always get left out, because nobody got to know them,\u201d he said. \u201cThey hadn\u2019t formed the same friendships.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Sharon and baby Kevin O’Donnell<\/p>\n

Sharon was the \u201cother mammy\u201d in the house, rarely seen without a child on her hip. She loved style and school, and loved to bend the uniform rules even more. In Scoil Mhuire gan Sm\u00e1l, she had the responsibility of taking the roll books to the office. Joanne was quieter, always with her head in a book.<\/p>\n

Their friends, many of them now in their 50s, will have the opportunity to reunite and remember them this week.<\/p>\n

Among the music chosen is Our Lady of Knock, while Joe Joe and his daughter Kyra have also recorded a version of Oceans (Where Feet May Fail), about trusting God in uncertain times.<\/p>\n

The Gateway Singers will provide music at the Mass. The 40th anniversary remembrance Mass will be celebrated by Father John Joe Duffy at the Cathedral of St Eunan and St Colmcille on Saturday 25th April 2026 at 4pm.<\/p>\n

A musical tribute will follow at the Cathedral on Sunday 26th April at 3pm, featuring Margo, Shunie Crampsey, Sinead and Alex Black, Kyra and Joe Joe O\u2019Donnell, Ruairi Gallagher and local choirs. A retiring collection at both events will be in aid of St Eunan\u2019s Cathedral Painting Fund.<\/p>\n

The family\u2019s hope for the weekend is a simple one.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Sunday will be emotional. It\u2019ll be hard, but it will be nice,\u201d said Philip.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just hope that everything goes well, and that whoever comes enjoys it,\u201d Angela said.<\/p>\n

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