{"id":647800,"date":"2026-10-07T19:16:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T19:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/647800\/"},"modified":"2026-10-07T19:16:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T19:16:11","slug":"we-need-the-truth-calls-for-public-inquiry-into-creeslough-tragedy-on-fourth-anniversary-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/647800\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We need the truth\u2019: Calls for public inquiry into Creeslough tragedy on fourth anniversary \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hundreds of people, including the families of those who died in the Creeslough<\/a> explosion of October 7th, 2022, gathered at the site of the tragedy on Wednesday to remember their loved ones four years on.<\/p>\n

Ten people, ranging in age from five to 59, died in the blast. Robert Garwe and his daughter Shauna Flanagan-Garwe (5), Catherine O\u2019Donnell and her son James Monaghan (13), Jessica Gallagher, Martin McGill, James O\u2019Flaherty, Martina Martin, Hugh Kelly and Leona Harper (14) were all killed in the explosion.<\/p>\n

Heavy rain gave way to bright sunshine at the scene of the tragedy, as prayers were said for lost loved ones.<\/p>\n

At the stroke of 3.17pm, at the exact moment of the explosion, an eerie silence fell over the village.<\/p>\n

Some family members who lost loved ones in the tragedy spoke after the short service.<\/p>\n

\u00c1ine Flanagan, who lost her partner Robert and daughter Shauna in the blast, said that the families were now entering a fifth year without their loved ones.<\/p>\n

She said it was \u201cheartbreaking\u201d, and all they wanted was the truth of what happened on that Friday afternoon in October 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe, the families, we deserve answers,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

When asked what life was like without her partner and daughter, she replied, \u201cIt\u2019s painful. I\u2019m missing them every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Donna Harper, whose daughter Leona was just 14 when she was killed in the explosion after entering the garage for an ice-cream, said the pain simply never gets any easier.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cWe\u2019re standing here four years on, and it never gets any easier. I still miss my wee girl every single day, every moment of every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI stood here for almost 24 hours, across the road, waiting for my wee girl to be found, hoping and praying for a miracle that she would be brought out. That didn\u2019t happen, and my wee girl never came home.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added that unless the families get the truth of what caused the explosion, they will never be able to move on.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need answers, we need to know what happened, why it happened, how it happened. We need to know the truth to be able to move on,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Her husband, Hugh, said he still recalls waiting at \u201cthis very spot\u201d for his daughter\u2019s remains to be taken out from the scene of the carnage.<\/p>\n

However, he says it\u2019s wrong to say that his only daughter is not with her family still.<\/p>\n

Choking back tears, he said: \u201cShe is here. She\u2019s with me. She\u2019s there in the morning, she\u2019s there at night … first and last thoughts.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut life is not the same. It\u2019s changed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just hard to put it into words, it really is, but the loss, it can\u2019t be measured. It just can\u2019t be measured,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

He said he had one simple request for the Government \u2013 to never allow something like this to happen again to any other family.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just wish that the Government would come on board, that they would establish a public inquiry for the simple reason as to examine every possible avenue of how this was allowed to happen, and not let it happen again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fr John Joe Duffy read out the names of the victims in the order that they were pronounced dead at the time of the tragedy at the service.<\/p>\n

The families were joined in solidarity by members of the Stardust Victims\u2019 Committee as well as members of the Bloody Sunday Trust.<\/p>\n

Fr Duffy appealed to everyone gathered to support each other on their journey of healing.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cAs we gather here today, as we stand here in this place today, grief does not end, and everyone, while on a collective journey, is at a different stage on the road towards healing.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome may have started that journey, while others have found that they have not yet been able to even begin on that journey to healing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Members of the emergency services who attended the scene on the day were also present, as well as senior garda\u00ed and a number of elected members of Donegal County Council.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hundreds of people, including the families of those who died in the Creeslough explosion of October 7th, 2022,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":647801,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[983,1485,1523,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-647800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-creeslough","tag-donegal","tag-government","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=647800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}