People of Creeslough stand together once more at the end of longest week

As they have done time and again, the exhausted community lined the narrow main street of the Co Donegal village with heads bowed as coffins passed.

This time they had come to say goodbye to Robert Garwe and his five-year-old daughter Shauna Flanagan-Garwe, the youngest victim of the tragedy which claimed 10 lives.

Even by the standards of grief witnessed in Creeslough over recent days, the sight of Shauna’s tiny wicker casket being carried into St Michael’s church seemed for many to be close to unbearable.

As has been remarked countless times, everyone knows everyone in this village. There are just 400 people who live in Creeslough in the shadow of Muckish Mountain and they have all carried the burden of grief. Most of the victims lived here. The others were known to people here.

The strain has been evident at times on the face of Father John Joe Duffy, on whom the weight of responsibility for leading most of the services has fallen. A week ago, he was known as the local priest. Now, through his comforting presence and compassion, he is known around the world as the personification of the inspiring power of community in this tiny settlement when dealing with overwhelming tragedy.

Similarly, the names of the victims have become familiar to many as the days have passed by in Creeslough’s longest week: Jessica Gallagher, Martin McGill, James O’Flaherty, Catherine O’Donnell and her son James Monaghan, Martina Martin, Leona Harper, Hugh Kelly.

And now, at the end of it all, the funeral for Robert Garwe and his beloved daughter Shauna, who had started school just weeks ago.

Their two hearses arrived at the church side by side. Fr Duffy said they had lived side by side and he prayed they were side by side in heaven.

He said: “Shauna could always be heard with a giggle, and when sitting down she sure did like to wiggle.

“On her pink scooter she would come to the gate, with Kylo in tow, her little dog mate. So chatty and bubbly, she just loved to play and have fun with her friends each and every day.

“A truly wonderful girl who left a lasting impression on all she met.

“She, together with her dad, were very well known in this community, together with her dad and mum, such a familiar sight up and down the road. They were always together, that little unit.”

It had all started eight days ago when a huge explosion destroyed buildings and ripped the heart out of this community.

This was followed by harrowing scenes during the search operation. Emergency services and first responders from both sides of the Irish border came together in the desperate task of sifting through tonnes of rubble to recover the bodies.

Last weekend, a stunned silence lingered over the groups of locals who gathered to watch the operation, punctuated only by occasional anguished cries of sorrow.

Then there were the vigils, the books of condolence, as the sense of grief rippled out across the county, the island and beyond. Messages of support came from around the world, including from King Charles and the Pope.

An international fundraising effort has raised hundreds of thousands of euro. Local cafes have provided refreshments in return for a donation to the appeal fund.

Irish president Michael D Higgins has been there to share the sorrow of the families. He said it had been an “extraordinary week”.

And then there were the funerals. At times it was difficult to remember which day it was as one service quickly followed another. The grief of separate families, like the days, bled into one.

Now, the TV cameras will finally leave and attention will turn away. The world will move on and Creeslough will be left to deal with its grief.

Last Saturday, at a service at St Michael’s church, the Bishop of Raphoe Alan McGuckian lit 10 red candles in memory of the victims of the Creeslough tragedy.

The candles have burned continually on the altar since then as the funerals have taken place. Now, they will be extinguished.

But, as Fr Duffy has said repeatedly during the saddest week for Creeslough, the people have shown they are strongest when they rely on each other.

That sense of community cannot be so easily extinguished.