Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Friday, for the tight-knit community of Creeslough, was the beginning of the weekend. School was over. People were finishing up work. Children were buying treats and families in this peaceful rural community were running errands and stopping at the local Applegreen petrol station. Some had stopped to go into the station shop, were queuing for the post office or simply wanted to buy an ice cream. In the blink of an eye their lives ended after a deadly explosion tore the station and apartment complex apart. Everyday scenes in Creeslough's small rural community on that Friday autumnal afternoon changed in a second, tragically and cruelly for so many.

It was an unmerciful sight, locals and response services said. Emergency services and locals worked through the night to rescue survivors and recover the deceased. Tháinig an pobal le chéile chun cabhair agus tacaíocht a thabhairt dá chéile. The incredible community spirit and support on show in the most awful of circumstances must be commended. Yet it is difficult to imagine how the scale of these sudden devastating losses and trauma can possibly be absorbed or comprehended by the community in Creeslough. Such suffering has no debt left in numbness but still the community rally as the first of the ten funerals have been held today. Four men, three women, two teenagers and a five-year-old girl all lost their lives - little Shauna and her father Robert, Hugh, Catherine and her son James, Leona, Jessica, Martin, James and Martina. The mourning is only beginning. We must honour those precious lives and support that broken community. Those children and adults will be remembered through mourning and we mourn together as a nation.

Is minic in Éirinn agus fud fad Dhún na nGall go n-éistimid, le meas, le ceol an chaointe. Nach mór an cháil ar Chaoineadh na dTrí Mhuire? Ábhar suntais ab ea é an sólás a bhí le brath sa séipéal ar an gCraoslach Dé hAoine seo caite. Amach anseo cumfar caoineadh nua, caoineadh an Chraoslaigh nó caoineadh an deichniúr. Ba dhaoine iad a d’imigh ar shlí na fírinne, idir óg agus aosta, ar fad róluath. Cuimhneofar orthu le caoineadh. Tabharfar urraim dóibh le caoineadh.

Cabhrófar linn déileáil le huafás na tragóide seo tríd an gcaoineadh. Tógfaimid tacaíocht dá chéile trí chleachtadh agus canadh an chaointe. Bunófar cuimhní an Chraoslaigh leis an gcaoineadh. Ní bheidh a leithéidí arís ann. Is deora Dé a chuimhneoimid le chéile ag lorg sólás agus misneach do mhuintir an Chraoslaigh agus iad ag leanúint ar aghaidh gan a gclann ná na daoine is ansa leo atá imithe uathu.

Mar Aire Turasóireachta, Cultúir, Ealaíon, Gaeltachta, Spóirt agus Meán agus mar mháthair, ba mhaith liom mo chomhbhrón a chur in iúl do mhuintir an Chraoslaigh agus do mhuintir chontae Dhún na nGall go léir. Beidh siad beo inár gcroíthe inár smaointe agus inár bpaidreacha ar feadh i bhfad. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a n-anamacha.

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