A feature by Paddy Walsh from the special memorial Mass held to mark 40 years since O’Donnell fire tragedy
CARVED into the memories of those who loved and lost all too soon, that fateful day on April 26, 1986, when fire ravaged a family home in Letterkenny and claimed the lives of five beautiful souls.
In a packed St Eunan’s Cathedral on Saturday afternoon, just 200 yards from where the tragedy occurred in Ard O’Donnell, the bereaved families and friends of Sharon, Joanne, Adrian and Kevin O’Donnell, and their babysitter, Noreen O’Donnell, were joined by a huge congregation continuing to share the pain that has shadowed each and every year since.
“We are here to wrap our arms around you,” chief celebrant, Fr John Joe Duffy, assisted by Monsignor Kevin Gillespie and Fr. Michael McCullagh, declared at the memorial Mass.
“It may be 40 years but for you it’s a moment in time, a very short moment,” he told Joe and Angela O’Donnell and their family, Philip, Paddy and Joe, along with Noreen’s father, Manus, and sister, Evelyn. Noreen’s brother, Manus, watched the emotionally charged occasion from Australia while her mother, Eileen, and brother, Tony, were also remembered.
A year after the tragedy, Joe and Angela christened their daughter, Noreen, in memory of their beloved baby sitter. “She was baptised here in this very Cathedral”.
Fr Duffy spoke of those who had comforted and consoled the O’Donnells on the day of the tragedy and in the subsequent days, months and years.
He mentioned in particular, a neighbour. J.J. Gallagher, whose anniversary was occurring at this time.
The voices and music of the Gateway Singers, conducted by Clare Doherty, soared to the heavens including a powerful rendition of ‘On Eagle’s Wings’ that touched hearts and souls between the readings.
It was, Fr Duffy pointed out in his homily, important for family and friends to come together to remember.
Time couldn’t alter the pain of loss. “It only helps us to walk with that pain.”
Forty years ago, life had been pretty simple. “Doing the mad things that young people did back then – like riding bikes on top of school shelters, jumping the highest walls and climbing the highest trees.”
The two eldest children, 14 year old Sharon and Joanne, aged 12, were themselves part of that life, part of that fun before the tragedy struck.
Sharon had been preparing to go to a camogie blitz in Derry while Joanne had been due to go to her swimming class.
He went on to paint snapshots of the lives of the young O’Donnells; Sharon carrying their 20-month old baby Kevin on her hip, “the second mother in the house”. And Joanne who was involved in athletics and in the choir and who made her Confirmation with Philip; four year old Adrian, who loved to watch television and particularly the Gremlins movie; and baby Kevin who liked to be carried around and was very contented.
And Noreen, so much a part of the family, so much so that she raced upstairs in the blazing inferno on that Saturday morning in an effort to save the lives of the children and in the process surrendered her own, an act of bravery for which she was awarded a posthumous award five years after the fire.
Not just the community had been touched by the devastation but the entire country had been impacted, Fr Duffy declared.
“But it was you, each of you, that had to carry that pain, that pain which is there, but a pain which you learned through time to cope with.”
Fr Duffy added that what had struck him was the gratitude that the families were always giving in their pain. “The gratitude to a community that put its arms around you and helped; the people who took you into their hearts and their homes and, who, in the cloud of grief put a shawl of care around you.”
Citing the tragedy that befell Creeslough when ten people perished in the explosion in October four years ago, Fr Duffy recalled seeing Joe, Angela and their son, Philip in the church there night after night, offering their support to the families and the community and providing a strength of support to him as well by their presence.
The chief celebrant also spoke of the O’Donnell family’s continuing determination to highlight the importance of fire safety. “That’s your ongoing contribution, your ongoing legacy, the need to help to give fire personnel every resource.”
He went on to point to the support given to the family by the then Bishop Seamus Hegarty at a time when there were few agencies of help to turn to. He had proved to be a true friend as they attempted to knit their lives together again.
The Bishop had suggested to Angela that the family put a Christmas tree in the window on the first Christmas following the fire. They had done so and ever since then they had lit up their home with festive lights in memory of their children. They had also placed lights on the graves of Sharon, Joanne, Adrian and Kevin in Leck cemetery.
And each of the families had been lights of inspiration and continued to be.
Fr Duffy spoke of the faith that had followed them through the darkest of times.
God, he said, had intervened to help them through the pain and been there for them.
He quoted Bishop Hegarty’s homily at the funerals on the Monday following the tragedy when he said “the great consolation was that they had closed their eyes for the last time in their bedrooms in Ard O’Donnell and opened them in the presence of God.”
On the Friday before the Saturday changed lives forever, Sharon had etched her initials onto a school bench in Loreto Convent.
Her full name and that of her siblings and their babysitter would tragically occupy newsprint in the subsequent days and weeks before being inscribed on headstones in graveyards in Leck and Sessiaghoneill.
Following the memorial Mass, Joe O’Donnell described the ceremony as “absolutely beautiful” before thanking everyone for their attendance.
A beautiful ceremony for five beautiful souls.