Donegal explosion: All 10 people killed in petrol station blast named by police

All 10 people killed in an explosion at a petrol station in County Donegal have been named by police.

The blast in the village of Creeslough on Friday afternoon claimed the lives of four men, three women, two teenagers and a girl of primary school age.

In a news conference on Sunday, police said the victims are James O Flaherty, 48, Jessica Gallagher, 24, Martin McGill, 49, Catherine O Donnell, 39, and her son James Monaghan, 13, Hugh Kelly, 59, Martina Martin, 49, Robert Garwe, 50, and his daughter Shauna Flanagan Garwe, aged five, and 14-year-old Leona Harper.

Leona was the first to be named as among those killed.

Letterkenny Rugby Club paid tribute to the “talented rugby player” and an “important part of our U14 girls’ team” in a post on their Facebook page.

One man in his 20s is in a critical condition in hospital.

The seven other surviving casualties continue to receive treatment in Letterkenny University Hospital and remain in a stable condition.

Garda Superintendent Liam Geraghty said on Sunday that the scene of the explosion is still being examined and remains cordoned off.

Post mortem examinations on those who died have started and will continue over the next few days, although results will not be released for operational reasons.

Spt Geraghty said: “It is a huge impact for a small rural community – they were all local people, all very much involved in the community, all shopping in their local shop.

“But it is a very strong community, as seen here on Friday afternoon…so I’m sure the community will come together and will support each other.”

Addressing the congregation during Sunday mass at St Michael’s Church in Creeslough, Bishop of Raphoe Alan McGuckian said the community was “living through a nightmare of shock and horror”.

He added: “It’s an experience that we are living through together. But we recognise that the trauma is different for every single individual. We hold in our hearts most especially those for whom this is most acute.

“Over the last couple of days as people gathered in groups to talk about what has happened here these last days, the one word that stands out for me in relation to the explosion is something somebody said.

“It is so random, they said. And what she was referring to was, anybody could have been caught up in that. There’s something deeply shocking and upsetting about what life throws up, can throw up.

“We ask why did it have to happen here, to this person, that person, why did they have to be there at that awful moment?

“The bereaved and the injured have to carry the awful insecurity of that question. Others of us could easily carry a certain sense of guilt.

“Why was it them and not me who was hit by the randomness of this tragedy? There is fundamentally a terrible realisation that we are not masters of our own destiny.”