Oldest Creeslough blast victim Hugh Kelly to have funeral a week after explosion

The funeral for the oldest victim in the Creeslough explosion will take place in St Michael’s on Friday morning.

Farmer Hugh Kelly, 59, will be the eighth person the small Irish community will honour at a service since 10 people were killed in Co Donegal a week ago.

At the funeral for 14-year-old Leona Harper on Thursday, those in attendance heard that the families and communities impacted by the tragedy are “lost in a fog of grief” and painful sadness.

Mourners at her funeral at St Mary’s Church in Ramelton, Co Donegal, heard how her parents, Hugh and Donna, talked of their daughter as a “gem” which shone brightly.

Mrs Martin, 49, was working in the shop when the explosion happened at a service station in the rural village.

The funeral of Leona, who was a talented rugby player and sister to two older brothers, Anthony and Jamie, heard how her sudden death has left all those who knew and loved her “shell-shocked and grief-stricken”.

“Creeslough is a small village but it is now more than just that. It is now a word for determination, for resolve and for togetherness and how important togetherness is,” he said.

“This tragedy has reignited within all of us, myself included, that each one of us are only as strong as the families we have around us, only as strong as the community that surrounds us.”

President Michael D Higgins and the Taoiseach’s aide-de-camp were among those who attended the services for Leona and Mrs Martin.

The funerals of Jessica Gallagher, 24, and Martin McGill, 49, were held in Creeslough on Tuesday, while those of Catherine O’Donnell, 39, and her son James Monaghan, 13, were held in Creeslough on Wednesday afternoon.

A service for James O’Flaherty, 48, was held in the morning in Derrybeg.

Funeral details for the youngest victim, Shauna Flanagan Garwe, five, and her father Robert Garwe, 50, have yet to be announced.