Mum of youngest Creeslough victim says planning decision like "throwing salt into wound that hasn’t healed"

The mother of the youngest person killed in the Creeslough explosion has accused the local authority of breaking a pledge to families of the ten victims that nothing would be built on the site until gardaí completed their investigation.

In an interview with the Irish Mail on Sunday, Áine Flanagan, whose five-year-old daughter Shauna was found beneath the rubble wrapped in her father’s arms, said: "I lost my whole family, I lost my whole life that day and there has to be some respect for the families."

Ms. Flanagan spoke out after Donegal County Council this week granted planning permission for a new shop, post office, deli, off license and garage to be built on the site where ten people aged between five and 59 died in a suspected gas explosion on October 7, 2022.

This is despite a written and verbal promise to the victims’ families during a meeting in the lead-up to the first anniversary of the tragedy.

At the meeting, a council official read from a prepared statement – seen by the Mail on Sunday – which stated: "In relation to the partially demolished structure of the former petrol station, shop and apartment block, the Council is advised, following direct engagement with the owners of the property, that the investigations remain ongoing and any decision regarding the future use of the site must remain on hold until such time as investigations have been determined."

Gardaí, the Health and Safety Authority and the Commission for Regulating Utilities have all yet to complete their separate investigations into the blast, which claimed the lives of five-year-old Shauna Flanagan Garwe, who would have been looking forward to celebrating her eighth birthday on Thursday if she and her father Robert, who was also killed in the explosion, had not dropped into the local garage to buy a birthday cake treat for her mother.

The other victims include 13-year-old James Monaghan and his mother, Catherine O’Donnell, Leona Harper, 14, Hugh Kelly, Jessica Gallagher, Martin McGill, James O’Flaherty and Martina Martin.

The families of the victims have reacted with shock, hurt and dismay to the council’s U-turn.

Ms. Flanagan told the MoS: "People think this investigation is over – but it isn’t.

"It’s a criminal investigation and it’s one of the biggest ever in the State. We know there could have been a possible gas leak, but we haven’t been definitively told that by the guards.

"How can someone build on a site when there is an ongoing investigation?

"There were 30 submissions and two solicitors’ letters against this, and Donegal County Council has stuck their fingers up at them.

"I really don’t get it. Something will have to be done in law to prevent anybody building on a site where people died. I think only when you have gone through it [you can understand].

"There’s an EU law that you have a right to grieve but because of all this planning we’re not being given the right to grieve."

Donegal County Council did not respond to queries this weekend about the written promise to the victims’ families.

The controversial planning application to rebuild on the site was submitted by a company called Vivo Shell Limited.

Its directors are 49-year-old Annette Lafferty and her 42-year-old brother Danny Martin. They both grew up in the heart of the scenic Donegal village, which has a population of around 500.

The siblings’ family has been involved in businesses in Creeslough for decades.

Ms. Lafferty and Mr. Martin have been running a replacement shop from a prefab building since their premises was destroyed in the explosion.

When asked if she would be available to comment, a man at her home told the Mail on Sunday: "She’s not talking to anyone."

The plans to redevelop the site include a memorial garden, and a proposal to erect ten poles to commemorate each of the victims.

Families to appeal

The families of those killed in the blast say they are determined to appeal the council’s decision.

Ms. Flanagan, 58, said only a memorial garden should be built on the site.

She told the Mail on Sunday: "They [owners] say they can’t find a site and they are erecting ten poles.

"[But] there are lots of sites around here, and we want to preserve the site [of the explosion] if there is an inquiry. Look where we are… there are fields everywhere.

"What was built at Ground Zero [before investigations were completed]? Nothing. What is going to be built at Grenfell? Nothing. Why has the small town of Creeslough the power to do that?"

Looking at her mantlepiece, the grieving mother pointed to a drawing of a girl in a bright dress holding an animal, standing near a woman. There is also a love heart, and a message that reads: "I love you Mammy Happy Birthday Love Shauna."

The picture was drawn by Shauna just a little over four and a half hours before she and her father, also known as Bob, left the house to buy a birthday cake.

Tragic day

Recalling that fateful afternoon, Ms. Flanagan said her daughter left their home in high spirits and was excited at the prospect of buying a special Friday treat.

She said: "Shauna wasn’t allowed any spoilations [treats] during the week. She did that picture for me that day in school at half ten. I was in the shop that morning at half ten because the children go out to the playground. The school is across the road, and if she saw me she’d say, 'Did you get me anything' because Fridays were always spoilation day.

"She was so excited about going to the shop to get me a birthday cake. But I had a terrible foreboding that day, I don’t know why. I didn’t want either of them to go."

Then, at 3:17 pm, came the explosion that changed her life – and the lives of the families of all of the ten people who perished beneath the rubble – forever.

Ms. Flanagan instinctively knew something terrible had happened.

She said: "A picture of my birth grandparents fell off the wall… I fell to my knees screaming. I was paralyzed, I couldn’t move.’

Ms. Flanagan’s worst fears were confirmed when the bodies of her only child and partner were found wrapped in each other’s arms.

"Bob was protecting Shauna," she said, fighting back tears.

"Throwing salt into a wound that hasn't healed"

Ms. Flanagan said the decision to grant planning to redevelop the site while investigations are ongoing is ‘re-traumatising’ families.

"It’s throwing salt into a wound that hasn’t healed, she said.

"It’s a criminal investigation and we still need that site for an inquiry. We feel completely let down by Donegal County Council.

"There’s no empathy for us. It’s not just a development where nothing happened… ten people died, and we don’t know the answers and there should be something there in law that nothing can be rebuilt until an investigation is completed."

Five people have been arrested in connection with the explosion.

A man in his 60s, who voluntarily presented himself for interview at Dundalk Garda Station last November was questioned for alleged reckless endangerment of life. Three other men and a woman were also arrested as part of the Garda investigation. All were released without charge.

Local parish priest, Fr Martin Doohan, said that even though almost two and a half years have passed, many hearts in the close-knit town remain broken.

"The planning is a reminder of a terrible event," he told the Mail on Sunday.

"I think the best way to describe it is like the words of WB Yeats’s poem 'The Second Coming'… 'Things fall apart; the center cannot hold'."

* This article was originally published on Extra.ie.