Donegal County Council Calls For Creeslough Public Inquiry Within Government’s First 100 Days In Office

Hugh O’Donnell –✍ Breaking news.

‘We must put our political and personal differences to the one side in the interests of these families and the victims’ - Cllr Frank McBrearty Jr

Donegal County Council has unanimously backed a call for an independent statutory judicial public inquiry into the explosion in Creeslough, County Donegal.

The explosion on October 7, 2022, killed 10 people: Shauna Flanagan (5), her father Robert Garwe, Leona Harper, Hugh Kelly, Jessica Gallagher, Martin McGill, James O’Flaherty, Martina Martin, Catherine O’Donnell and her son James Monaghan.

Speaking at Donegal County Council’s November plenary, Cllr Frank McBrearty Jr, who proposed the motion, said it was vital the proposed public inquiry had “an open terms of reference”.

(The full text of the motion is carried at the end of this article.)

He called on the new, incoming Dublin Government to establish the public inquiry “within its first 100 days in office”.

Speaking to his motion, Cllr McBrearty first referenced Martin Luther King Jr who said:

An injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I believe these comments by Martin Luther King sum up the injustices the Creeslough families are enduring daily,

It has been two years, one month and 18 days since the tragic events happened. This is the worst tragedy to hit Donegal in this century - 10 innocent people ranging from five-years-old to 59-years-old lost their lives that terrible day.”

Acknowledging Monday’s meeting was the first time he had spoken publicly about the Creeslough victims and their families, Cllr McBrearty said he had been approached for advice by The Harper family at the beginning of this year.

He said:

I have listened to them about their concerns and what has happened over the last two years. My advice to them was that they needed an independent statutory judicial public inquiry - that is what they needed to focus on if they wanted the full truth about what happened that terrible day.
As county councillors in local government we are given a mandate by the people to represent them on a wide range of issues. As the Great Irish American Politician Thomas Tip O’Neil once said “all politics is local”.
Today we must put our political and personal differences to the one side in the interests of these families and the victims.
We must try and understand that these families are heartbroken because they have endured the loss of the people they loved most in their lives.

The Independent Raphoe councillor said he could not imagine what it was like to lose a family member in such a terrible and untimely way.

“We all lose people we love at some time in our lives, but we never expect it to be in the way it happened in Cresslough,” he said.

Turning to his call for an independent statutory judicial public inquiry, Cllr McBrearty conceded some people might say it was “a waste of time”.

“We will hear the usual arguments against a tribunal - they are a waste of time, go on for too long.”

“Maybe they do,” said Cllr McBrearty, “and certain aspects of our media may agree and they are entitled to their opinions.

However, as the only public representative in this Council chamber and county today who has the experience of participating in a tribunal of inquiry, It is my firm opinion this is the only way the Creeslough families will ever get any justice worth talking about.
The one thing that these families will never be able to get back is their loved ones who were taken away from them unlawfully on October 7, 2022.
Why did this happen and who is to blame? Those are two of the most important questions, in my opinion, which must be answered by the State. Of course there are many other questions that need answering as well and only a public inquiry can deliver this.
When our Government does have the courage to establish this much needed tribunal, it has a moral obligation to ensure it is independent; the terms of reference are open; and that the families of the victims are legally represented and guaranteed full legal aid, on a par with those who will be represented by the State directly and indirectly.

There are currently a number of ongoing investigations into the Creeslough explosion.

Cllr McBrearty said certain commentators might use the excuse a tribunal could not be established until these were concluded.

He added:

This is completely incorrect. I know because the precedent was set when the Morris Tribunal was established in March 2002, while a number of Garda Investigations, Garda Complaints Board investigations, Criminal and Civil Court cases were ongoing.
None of these interfered with the other because each had its statutory obligations and remits. This sets the legal precedent which allows our next Government to establish the public inquiry to which the Creeslough families are entitled.

Giving an insight into his struggles with Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) due to what he described as “an injustice”, Cllr McBrearty said he knew and understood what the Creeslough families were dealing with on a daily basis. He added:

The mental health issues, such as panic attacks, anxiety, flashbacks, eating disorders, depression, suicide and much more which are associated with PTSD are just some of the things and feelings that these families will endure for many years to come.
“Time is a healer’, they say but I am not sure this is the case. It is okay not to be okay. However, until these families are given the full truth about why and what happened to their loved ones that terrible day, only then will it be okay. Maybe then they will be able to get back to some sort of normality.
I have been assured by Charlie Ward that if he is elected to Dáil Éireann he will fight to get a tribunal established by the next Government.
I am also calling on the local and national media to ask our General Election candidates to give a firm commitment - if they are elected on Friday, November 29, they too will fight to ensure an independent statutory judicial public inquiry is established into the Creeslough Explosion within the first 100 days of our new Government.
The truth and nothing but the truth is the only thing that will set these families free from their pain and suffering they are enduring every day without their loved ones. The worst form of injustice is pretend justice and that is why the elected members must fully support these families today.

If the incoming Government does not establish a public inquiry into the Creeslough explosion within the next six months, Cllr McBrearty pledged to re-submit his motion “again and again until they do the right thing by these families”.

He added:

There is a Latin proverb which runs ‘Fiat Justitia Ruat Caelum’ - Let Justice be done though the Heavens fall. If our new Government does not establish a public inquiry into the Creeslough explosion, the Heavens will fall.

The full text of Cllr Frank McBrearty’s motion to Donegal County Council

I am requesting that the new incoming Government establish within its first 100 days an Independent Statutory Judicial Public Inquiry with an open terms of reference into the explosion in Cresslough, Co Donegal that Killed 10 people on the 7th Oct 2022, and I am calling on all the elected members of Donegal County Council to support my motion for this much needed Public Inquiry.

⏪Hugh O’Donnell is on the ground in Donegal.