While funerals have been held for the 10 victims of the Creeslough explosion, there are still gaps left by their deaths, President Michael D. Higgins said.
President Higgins spoke after the funeral of Robert Garwe and his five-year-old daughter, Shauna Flanagan Garwe, who were killed in the explosion eight days ago.
The president joined relatives and other mourners for the requiem mass at the city’s San Michele Church, the final two funerals for the 10 blast victims.
“The funerals are over, but all the vacant spaces are there. All the losses that were experienced. Something new will have to come in it’s place,” President Higgins said, reports RTE.
Relatives of Mr Garwe and Shauna, 50, walked behind the motorcade the short distance from their home to St Michael’s Church.
They passed Scoil Mhuire School, which Shana had just started attending.
Teachers and students stood in silence in a guard of honor as the coffins passed.
The father and daughter had entered the village shop to buy a birthday cake for the girl’s mother, Áine, when they were hit by the explosion which caused the building to collapse.
A family member recounted how they were rescued from the rubble hugging each other.
The family took them to church; Shauna in a small wicker coffin. At the beginning of the mass, the offerings were brought to the altar.
They include the scooter that Shana and her father were often seen on together. Shauna’s pink unicorn teddy bear was discovered and placed next to the many family photos that adorned the altar and both caskets.
John Joe Duffy welcomed Mr Garwe, some of whom had traveled from Zimbabwe for the funeral. “Creeslough welcomes you to this home where Bob and Shauna shared the life of this community,” he told them, according to RTE.
Father Duffy painted a portrait of a mischievous and fun-loving girl who brought great joy to her family and the whole town.
He told mourners that the deaths of Mr Garwe and Shauna and everyone else were ‘incomprehensible’; that they had put the community to sleep and the pain was visible in the eyes of the people of Creeslough.
“Her father I’m sure in that split second just wanting to help and protect his beautiful daughter. We pray that they are side by side in heaven,” reported RTE.
The father and daughter are the last of ten victims to be buried after a week-long funeral in Donegal. Shauna was the youngest victim of the tragedy. Her father worked in construction and had moved to Donegal from Dublin.
The people of the community say that the funerals are now all over but that the healing process has started, with people saying that Fr John Joe Duffy was a pillar of the community.
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