Creeslough has had to become used to funerals. The same ritual marks the days: Mourners park their cars in the same place, or stand in the same spot on the road, as they wait for the hearse to make its way through the village to St Michael’s Church.
On Friday, they came for their neighbour Hugh Kelly, at 59 the oldest victim of the explosion at the shop, garage and apartment complex in the village a week ago. He is the eighth of 10 to be buried, most of them from this same chapel.
Parish priest Father John Joe Duffy bids those waiting a “good morning, everyone”, as he has done every morning since the funerals began on Tuesday. Since the tragedy he has been the voice of the village and the comfort of its people; he has found words where there are no words.
In silence, the hearse makes its way slowly towards the church. Travelling with him, keeping him company on this last journey, are Hugh’s partner Linda and her daughter Mary. Hugh’s coffin is lifted aloft by the women of his family; Mary and his nieces carry him inside.
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Brought to the altar to represent the different aspects of Hugh’s life was a jewellery box he had made for his niece, which demonstrated his “ability to turn his hand to so many things,” Fr Duffy said.
With his attention to detail, his sharp eye and his commitment to the task, “nobody could do it like Hughie.”
A pot of blackberry jam, representing his “patience, dedication and kindness” in the hours spent picking blackberry and making jam for family and friends, and two photographs — one of Hugh with his beloved granddaughter Rosey, and a recent picture of him in a cornfield in “happier times” — were placed with his coffin.
Hugh was “a man who enjoyed a good time”, a “happy man” with a “cheeky grin”, who his family “knew and loved so well”, Fr Duffy said.
In his homily the priest told stories of Hugh’s childhood growing up in nearby Doe, the youngest of five children, and how he had been “a bit of a daredevil”, even tackling the high wall of Doe castle on his bike.
Hugh had spent time in England, and famously sent home a photograph of himself with a parrot, but in Creeslough was “a very well-known figure in our community”, a man who “enjoyed life” and who often had a dog about him. “He never went out to find a dog but the dog always found him.”
He could fix or build virtually anything, and made a lot of “practical things”, from a cradle to the “fairy doors numerous in his sister’s garden.”
Even the wall behind the church carpark, Fr Duffy said, had been built by Hugh, adding “someone was telling me he placed his initials in that wall”.
His “determination” had been shown during his recent battle with cancer, which needed many trips for treatment up and down to Galway, and had been told he was in remission only three weeks ago.
He was, the priest said, someone who had “made a difference”. On the day of the tragedy, he was in the shop at the Applegreen service station with Robert Garwe and his daughter Shauna (5).
“Hughie had brought them to the shop to buy the birthday cake for her mum,” Fr Duffy said.
As always, there were thanks and prayers for the emergency services and volunteers who had helped last Friday, as well as for the other victims and their families — some of whom were at the funeral — as well as for the injured.
It was no surprise that at times during Requiem Mass, Fr Duffy sounded exhausted and at times almost overcome with emotion. He spoke of the shock and grief which had reverberated through the community, saying that a week on “we really don’t know what we are feeling… there is still that pall of silence, that grieving and mourning.
“We are a community that is carrying a broken heart,” he said, just as the Kelly and other families were also carrying broken hearts. “We will walk together to help us through.”
He said he had spoken with President Michael D Higgins — who had been at every funeral since Wednesday — about the importance of availing of the help on offer from multiple agencies.
“We need help, we need the continued embrace of this country and beyond.”
This help will be needed in the days ahead. On Saturday, the village must face one last funeral, that of Shauna Flanagan-Garwe and her father Robert.
As Hugh’s coffin was carried from the church, the only sound was of children playing. It was lunchtime at Scoil Mhuire, where until a week ago Shauna was one of the pupils. On Friday, the hearse passed the house where she and her father were being waked.
And for the briefest of moments, a rainbow shone in the sky over Creeslough.
