The mother of five-year-old Shauna Flanagan Garwe, the youngest victim of the Creeslough explosion, says she will never come to terms with the fact that her daughter and Shauna’s father died while carrying out “a simple act of love” — buying her a birthday cake.
Speaking to the Irish Mail on Sunday before the fourth anniversary of the devastating blast, which claimed 10 lives, Shauna’s mother Áine said: “They were going to buy me a birthday cake and it’s incredibly difficult living with the fact they were going to the shop for me… a simple act of love and they were killed in the explosion.”
Ms Flanagan, who turned 60 on Monday, said the grief caused by the loss of her family remains almost unbearable.
“My whole immediate family are gone. My whole lineage is gone; it’s gone completely. I am adopted… I will never see anyone else that will look like me.
“No matter how much therapy you get, it’s in your soul, I can’t really explain it… it’s just part and parcel of our life. I think unless you were in that situation you can’t understand the pain,” she said.
Yet despite the devastation she has endured, Ms Flanagan remains determined that the families of the Creeslough victims will eventually receive the answers they have been seeking.
“Why am I sitting here talking? Why have we to go and see Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan… why are we doing this in the depths of our grief and trauma? We are doing this because we loved our loved ones, but why should we have to?”
Three children, including Shauna, were among the 10 people killed in the catastrophic explosion on Friday afternoon, October 7, 2022. The blast reduced the local Applegreen petrol station, shop and adjoining apartments in the Co. Donegal village to rubble.
Shauna died alongside her father, Robert, as they chose a birthday cake for Áine. Thirteen-year-old James Monaghan and his mother, Catherine O’Donnell, were also killed, as was 14-year-old Leona Harper.
The other victims were Hugh Kelly, Jessica Gallagher, Martin McGill, James O’Flaherty and Martina Martin.
Seven people have been arrested during the ongoing criminal investigation, but no one has so far been charged in connection with the Creeslough explosion.
The bereaved families remain desperate to understand why their loved ones died.
“We don’t want it to happen again to anybody else,” Ms Flanagan said.
“I’m really, truly heartbroken on the fourth anniversary I have no answers as to why my beautiful daughter Shauna and my partner were killed.
“I am 60 this Monday, the fifth, and Shauna and Bob are not here to share the big day with me.”
Her anguish was echoed by Hugh Harper, the father of Leona. He said the families would not be able to properly begin healing until they received the “answers we need” about how “this was allowed to happen” and what could be done to prevent a similar tragedy “from happening again”.
Mr Harper told the MoS: “We need to know that we did our very best from stopping this from happening again… that the lives of Leona and the lives of the other nine people were not in vain.”
Four years after the blast tore through the heart of the small Co. Donegal village, Mr Harper, like many of the other families, is left with more questions than answers about what caused it.
“Standing on the street of Creeslough, as sure as Leona is buried in the Termon graveyard, I was standing on that street in Creeslough waiting to get Leona’s remains back, the question that ran through my mind was: ‘How was this allowed to happen?’, not why it happened. It was not ‘who was responsible?’
Ms Flanagan, who turned 60 on Monday, said the loss of her family remains almost unbearable.
‘Where we are at, at the minute, is the guards are waiting on direction from the Director of Public Prosecutions,’ he said.
The families are confident the extensive Garda investigation will ultimately result in a criminal trial that may give them some of the answers they are looking for.
However, Mr Harper said he is worried the ongoing State solicitors pay row could create ‘bottlenecks’ in the legal system that could further delay the families’ quest for justice.
‘We’re now watching in the news and we are watching it very closely, the differences of opinion between the Minister for Justice and the criminal aspects of the Legal Aid System.
‘I am very concerned about how that is going to affect us moving forward… the potential delays and bottlenecks this could force upon us. I can’t see why it couldn’t unless promises are given that our situation will be prioritised. Delay in justice is justice denied.
‘I am concerned… that our answers are going to be pushed out further into time with an unknown timeline. The worry is that the legal aid dispute has the potential of pushing the criminal case, if a criminal case were to happen, it has the potential of pushing that further down the road.’
In response to queries, the Department of Justice said it is ‘not aware’ the continuing dispute over State solicitors’ pay is having ‘any impact on the investigations ongoing in relation to the Creeslough tragedy’.
Áine Flanagan in her little girl Shauna’s bedroom
The grieving father said: ‘These are the worries that we live with today – these are the realities. Come and live in our home and see what we are going through.
‘How we are trying to adjust our lives. But without answers we can’t. We can pretend. We can try but it’s very difficult to make those adjustments without answers,’ he said.
Until the families get these answers, he added, they will not be able to heal.
‘As time goes on its not easier, it’s getting harder. Now we are only able to deal with the part of the grieving process and understand it a little bit better. We are now starting to understand that our lives are changed forever.
Mr Harper said: ‘It’s not easy. Leona is there but she’s not. We need answers and we need to know that we did our very best from stopping this from happening again…. that the lives of Leona and the lives of the other nine people were not in vain.’
Seven people have been arrested as part of an extensive criminal investigation into the explosion.
The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) is still considering if anyone should be charged in connection with the blast.
It has been reported that, as part of their investigation, gardaí were told that people living in the apartment complex adjoining the Creeslough service station were not issued with utility bills, even though they were supplied with gas.
Detectives have investigated if the gas system at the Creeslough complex complied with regulations and whether any unauthorised works were done.
The MoS understands a complaint about the gas system at the service station and the adjoining apartment complex was made to the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) several years before the explosion.
But the utilities regulator has repeatedly refused to comment and has also persistently declined to reveal what action, if any, was taken after it was alerted about a potential problem.
In January, Energy Minister Darragh O’Brien told the Dáil that the CRU carried out inspections after being alerted 10 years ago about unlicensed LPG networks serving domestic customers.
Catherine O’Donnell, 39, and her 13-year-old son James Monaghan, two of the ten victims of the explosion at Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough
Introducing new regulations under the Gas Safety Amendment Bill, the minister said at the time: ‘In 2016 the CRU was alerted to the existence of unlicensed LPG networks serving domestic customers.
‘These networks fell outside of the existing definition of an LPG undertaking and thereby were not subject to the CRU’s licensing regime.
‘The CRU carried out inspections and inquiries [sic] and issued instructions requiring improvements to networks’ safety practices.’
Mr O’Brien did not make any reference to the Creeslough tragedy when discussing the proposed regulations, which have yet to be enacted into law.
In a submission to the national planning authorities earlier this year, a solicitor on behalf of some of the Creeslough families objected to Donegal County Council’s decision to grant planning permission to the owners of the petrol station and complex, siblings Danny Martin Lafferty and Annette Lafferty.
Damien Tansey wrote ‘As operators, they bore direct legal and operational responsibility for the safe storage, management and use of volatile and hazardous materials including petrol and gas on the premises.
Hugh Harper, the father of Leona Harper
‘While investigations are ongoing the fact that three separate investigations have been initiated, is itself indicative of the gravity of the failures that appear to have occurred.
‘In these circumstances, it would be wholly unacceptable, reckless and contrary to the public interest to grant planning permission to the same applicants to once again become custodians of the volatile and hazardous materials associated with the operation of a fuel service.’
He added: ‘The decision by Donegal County Council to grant planning permission in these circumstances is not merely premature – it is fundamentally flawed, procedurally deficient and deeply offensive to the rule of law, public safety and basic human decency.’
Donegal County Council this weekend declined to comment on why it granted retention planning permission to the owners of the service station six months before the explosion without reports from the Chief Fire Officer and its Building Control Section
The scene of the blast at Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co. Donegal
The Department of Energy said the new Gas Safety Amendment Bill is likely to be passed into law over the coming weeks.
The CRU confirmed it received a complaint in November 2016 about a Liquified Petroleum Gas distribution network.
A spokesman said: ‘Privately owned LPG networks became established in a wide range of buildings during the rapid expansion of residential construction in the early 2000s, particularly in areas outside the natural gas network.
‘These networks typically consist of a central LPG storage tank connected by a private pipe network supplying multiple homes or buildings.
‘Responsibility for the maintenance, repair and safe operation of these networks rests with the network operator.’
The DPP said it does not comment on when it is likely to make a decision on a potential criminal trial.
