Jessica Gallagher's family clutched on to her coffin amid heartbreaking scenes from the first funeral to be held after the devastating Cresslough explosion. The 24-year-old had been due to start a new job on Monday and was back in her hometown to visit her boyfriend when the blast happened.
She had been in the flat above the Applegreen service station. Her partner is critically ill in hospital. At her funeral on Tuesday the local priest described her as someone who was "bursting with energy and imagination". Father John Joe Duffy said "Everyone who knew Jessica knew that radiant smile. That radiant smile that would light up a room with that infectious warmth that flowed from her. She always brought that sun whether things were happy or difficult." The cleric said her success in life was based on "hard work and determination".
"Jessica was of a slender stature but very strong, very strong, in every way possible," he told the congregation. "Strong in her own opinions, strong in her own self belief, in her determination. Her confidence was unstoppable. Honest and direct, she would tell you what she was thinking. But she could also let you tell her of what you thought of an opinion or a situation or a reality. Whether you liked it or not, or whether she liked it or not, she took it as it was."
Read more: The 10 people killed including five-year-old girl and two teenagers
He went on to describe how Donegal was always "in her heart" despite stints studying in Paris and Shanghai. "No matter how far she travelled or progressed the place she was proud of was her beautiful family home – her touchstone, her rock, and her pillar," he said. "She could talk for all Ireland. So, if you think the homily might be a little long this morning, she would probably go on longer than me.
"Someone said this week she didn't have a switch-off button. This, sadly, is the first time for us that we are experiencing a Jessica who is quiet, but Jessica who is not quiet before God, Jessica who is before God and with God, seeing God face to face, where God is holding her for you and where she is asking God to hold you Conor (her boyfriend) and to hold you her family in God's arms."
Fr Duffy said Jessica "radiated a warm and positive feeling" to all who knew her well. The priest said she left ripples of "love, affection, kindness and warmth" wherever she went.
"We are experiencing, you the family, are experiencing that most difficult challenge of all – the pain and hardship of having to say goodbye to Jessica today," he said.
"That pain and hardship that other families are experiencing and I know that other families have been with you that have lost a loved one and those who have a loved one in hospital at this time. That pain has been felt in our parish and in our neighbouring parishes when the pathway in which Jessica and others were travelling through life was so abruptly ended by this tragic accident.
"I wish I as a priest could explain that more fully in a way that words could explain it but we do not have words to explain it for words would make no sense or couldn't give it sense. I am part of you, part of this community, and it is together that we will make the journey and travel that journey going forward, supporting each other as so many people have been doing. Our entire community is hurting. Our hearts are heavy but our spirits are strong."
He also told mourners the Jessica's grieving father Anthony had told him of his pride in how the community in Creeslough had responded to the tragedy. "That sums up the type of community that we are and it is that community and our faith that will help us in the pathway of life ahead," he said.
The cleric added: "We are heartened this morning in our sadness of that support, that rallying of support from the very first moment of this terrible accident, that help that came to us from right across this island of Ireland, that help that joined in so greatly between the services from Northern Ireland and our own services and our locals all working together hand in hand."
READ NEXT:
- Digger driver refused to stop until body of teenager killed in petrol station explosion was found
- The frozen-in-time former Swansea Cavalier bar that's been exposed above the old BHS
- The two specific Covid symptoms that suggest you likely have the virus, says professors
Pupils move to online learning after primary school destroyed by fire
