The priest who anointed the dead and wounded in the immediate aftermath of the explosion which claimed 10 lives in Creeslough last year has said it was a “surreal” experience and like he was in “a parallel universe”.
The blast in the Co Donegal village on October 7th destroyed an Applegreen service station and caused a section of an adjacent apartment block to collapse.
Those who died were five-year-old Shauna Flanagan Garwe and her father Robert Garwe (50), Leona Harper (14), Hugh Kelly (59), Jessica Gallagher (24), Martin McGill (49), James O’Flaherty (48), Martina Martin (49), Catherine O’Donnell (39) and her 13-year-old son James Monaghan. Eight other people were hospitalised.
Fr John Joe Duffy, curate at St Michael’s Church, Creeslough, told pilgrims at the opening day of the 2023 Novena in Knock, Co Mayo, that the silence at the scene was deafening, even though he was surrounded by hundreds of people, including rescue teams.
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“What I was witnessing did not seem real but sadly it was something that was very real,” he said. “You couldn’t even hear birdsong. The only thing you could hear was the occasional rattle of machinery, falling debris or people saying ‘stand back’.
“It was something that one would never want to witness or feel it was something one should never witness.
“Those first minutes of witnessing the scene are forever with me. I see the daily image of that scene now often through my mind.”
Fr Duffy, the chief celebrant of the Novena Mass, recalled a member of the Northern Ireland Air Ambulance Service at the scene telling him the true extent of tragedy.
“I immediately was conscious that the scale of the tragedy unfolding before my eyes was larger than anything I had ever experienced before, nor was it something that I ever thought that I would experience in life.
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“My initial reaction was one of tremendous shock, horror, disbelief.”
The clergyman explained that he prayed at the scene for the safety of those who went straight into the building without assessing the risk to their own lives.
Fr Duffy admitted he felt a momentary sense of trepidation. “I became so afraid of my own limited abilities but then I drew on my faith asking Our Lady of Knock to wrap her mantle around us all and I reached out to close friends who could help me, give me guidance.”
The scale of the tragedy was shocking in such a small village, he added.
“The accident robbed us of 10 beautiful souls. The community was devastated by the loss and many people were traumatised.
“We were in a tsunami of suffering but there came a tidal wave of support.”
Fr Duffy said it was important to get the message out through the media that the community was going through its darkest days and hours and that it needed space to grieve.
“For the most part, journalists greatly respected and gave us that that space and also showed empathy with us.”
He argued Creeslough has proven to the world that our church is still our strongest bond, our hope within our communities.
“For many people, our church was the guiding light through the darkest days of the tragedy. A cruel tragedy befell us and we have survived and continue to survive,” said the priest.
Introducing him to the congregation, Fr Richard Gibbons, parish priest of Knock, said Fr Duffy had witnessed first hand the devastating tragic consequences of the explosion.
He said Fr Duffy would share his experience of helping the community cope with the tragedy and also share how that community helped him to cope in faith with what he experienced.