Irish Examiner view: When death comes out of nowhere

Creeslough tragedy

A garda brings flowers to the scene of an explosion at Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal, where ten people were killed. 

With the tragedy at Creeslough, which has taken the lives of 10 people, it fell to Bishop of Raphoe Alan McGuckian, lighting a red candle for each of the victims, to attempt to sum up the inexplicable, often irreconcilable, feelings that such disasters bring.

“A word that I heard just stuck with me,” he said. “One person used it, but it was about what had happened. They said it is so... random. It could happen to anybody. There is, I suppose, almost a sinister thing about the word ‘random’.”

Random. That is often what it is when death comes out of nowhere. Random at Grenfell Tower. Random at Aberfan. Random when you board the wrong train or boat or plane which becomes subject to catastrophic failure. In a world where we expect structure and logic, where many believe in divine purpose, where we frequently have a presentiment of the passing of loved ones, then the randomness of losing them in a common, quotidian, setting is very hard to bear, and
impossible to prepare for.

All the victims in Co Donegal were ordinary people enjoying ordinary lives. The oldest was 59, the youngest just five. A talented teenage rugby player making her way through the ranks at Letterkenny RC; a shop worker; a mother and son; a student. They are losses which unite the nation in grief. No words can provide balm, but relatives already appreciate the huge efforts of emergency services, including those from the North, and volunteers who rushed to the scene of devastation. Gardaí believe the explosion that ripped through the Applegreen service station and convenience store, as well as adjoining buildings, was a “tragic accident”.

Local priest Fr John Joe Duffy said the devastation is unlike anything experienced in the area before. “I am just worried as the days and weeks unfold. It’s so surreal and unreal,” he said. “It’s just heartbreaking and terrible. It was like a fictional movie unfolding before our eyes.”

Time, they say, is a healer. And there is truth in that.

But the clock has not yet started. For the community of Creeslough, and further afield, grieving has to come first.