HIGHER Education Minister Simon Harris has described the Creeslough explosion as a “generational trauma”.
Simon Harris made his comments as funeral details of three of 10 of those who lost their lives in Friday’s explosion at the Applegreen Service Station were announced.
The funerals of Jessica Gallagher (24) and Martin McGill (49) will takes place in Creeslough tomorrow,
James O’Flaherty, aged 48, who was originally from Sydney, Australia, will be laid to rest in Derrybeg on Wednesday.
Minister Harris told Newstalk Breakfast the people of Creeslough will need much support in the days and years ahead.
“Our thoughts and prayers are absolutely with everyone in Creeslough; everyone in Donegal and not just today – our support will have to be there in the weeks, months and years ahead.
“This is a generational trauma that has visited a small, close-knit community but has reverberated right across our country.
“That awful hackneyed phrase that ‘there are now words’, but genuinely there are no words.”
He said he keeps thinking about the younger victims, in particular.
“I think the country is genuinely numbed, there’s just this great sense of numbed grief right across our country today.
“I keep thinking about little Shauna, and the pictures that we’ve all now seen of her, five years of age.
“(Going) into a petrol station to buy her mum a birthday cake, or Jessica who was 24 and due to start a new job today in Belfast.
“These were beautiful, ordinary people going about their everyday lives in a way that any of us can imagine being in that scenario.
“I think the whole country is genuinely, utterly devastated.”
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Posted: 2:55 pm October 10, 2022