First Funeral Mass starts for Creeslough tragedy victim Jessica Gallagher

The funeral service has started for 24-year-old Jessica Gallagher who had “that infectious warmth”.

From Killoughcarran in Creeslough, Jessica was visiting her boyfriend at the apartment at the Applegreen complex at the time of the blast.

Jessica had qualifications in fashion design and marketing having studied at the Fashion Academy in Paris.

She also spent some time at college in Shanghai. She had recently took up a job as a fashion designer in Belfast.

Her funeral mass will take place in St Michael’s Church, Creeslough, on Tuesday morning, October 11 at 11am with interment afterwards in Doe Cemetery.

See her Requiem Mass here

Earlier, Donegal singer Daniel O’Donnell has revaled his distress at the Creeslough tragedy as two funerals are expected to take place in the small village today. Donegal singer Daniel O'Donnell said he was travelling home from the US when he heard about the tragedy at Creeslough.

He told the BBC Good Morning Ulster programme: "I was in the airport in Chicago when my niece called me and she said there has been a terrible explosion in Creeslough, at the service station.

"Initially you are hoping that there will be no fatalities, that people won't be badly injured.

"And then very, very quickly, as the story unfolded, we realised it was worse than anybody could ever believe.

"Before I left Chicago, it was announced that there was three fatalities and a number of people taken to the hospital.

"By the time we arrived there was 10 people dead.

"It is just unbelievable in a small community."

The funeral of Martin McGill, aged 49, from Creeslough will take place tomorrow afternoon at 2pm also in St Michael’s Church with burial afterwards in Doe Cemetery.

St Michael’s Church, Creeslough can be accessed online here

He will be ‘sadly missed by his mother Mary, sisters Marie Louise and Caroline and extended family and friends, brothers in law, Mathew and Iain, nieces and nephews and extended family and friends’.

See his death notice here

And the funeral of James O’Flaherty, Rinclevan, Dunfanaghy, originally of Sydney, Australia will be laid to rest in Derrybeg.

The funeral mass for the 48-year-old will take place in St Mary’s Church on Wednesday at 11am, with interment afterwards in Magheragallon Cemetery.

Mr O’Flaherty was at the Applegreen filling station on Friday afternoon when an apparent gas explosion demolished the front section of an apartment block adjacent to it, sending bricks and rubble down onto the garage forecourt below and collapsing into the shop and post office underneath.

He is survived by his wife Tracey and son Hamish, his brother John, sister-in-law Serena, and their children Amber and Ebony, and wider family.

Mr O’Flaherty was originally from Sydney, Australia, and is pre-deceased by his parents Brendan and Stella O’Flaherty.

The village of Creeslough will never be the same again after an explosion that killed 10 people, residents have said.

Books of condolence are being opened across the island of Ireland for the victims of the Creeslough tragedy.

People will be able to pay tribute to the 10 people who lost their lives in an explosion in the small village at locations across Donegal, including at St Michael’s Church and Creeslough Day Centre.