The oldest victim in the Creeslough explosion had recently received news that he was in remission after battling cancer, his funeral heard.
On Friday morning, people lined the Co Donegal village’s main street for the seventh funeral of the 10 people killed in the blast at a service station a week ago.
Hugh “Hughie” Kelly, 59, worked on farmland and as a carpenter, and was well-known in the community.
Father John Joe Duffy told the congregation that Mr Kelly was “a man who enjoyed a good time, a happy man and a cheeky grin, a man who the family knew and loved so well”.
He was described as having grown up in nearby Doe as the youngest of five siblings, and loved to spend time at the castle in the area as a child.
“He spent time in England, and there’s a photograph of him with a colourful exotic bird, something that he posted home one time with a letter.”
The priest said that Mr Kelly often had a dog with him, and would say: “I didn’t look for him, but he found me.”
The funeral also heard he could turn his hand to any job, from replacing a skirting board to making cradles, dolls and fairy doors for his nieces.
“He built the wall up here behind us in the car park, and someone was telling me he placed his initials in that wall,” Fr Duffy told mourners.
“Whether it was replacing a skirting board or hanging a shelf or a picture, he always gave it 100%, taking the time to get it right, making sure he got it perfect.
“Others would get it done and say it was grand, but he kept going until it was perfect.
“Of course, that shows that he wanted to do the very best for those he was doing it for out of his love.”
Fr Duffy also told mourners of Mr Kelly’s battle with cancer.
“He was someone who had determination, and he had lots of close scrapes, particularly in recent years with his cancer where he was up and down to Galway for treatment,” the priest said.
“He was battling that very well and just three weeks ago he was in Galway again for a check-up where he was in remission. That was such happy and good news.”
Mourners also heard that Mr Kelly had brought two other victims of the blast, Robert Garwe and his daughter, Shauna Flanagan Garwe, to the service station shop to buy a birthday cake for her mother on the day of the tragedy.
A jewellery box that Mr Kelly made for his niece and a picture of his granddaughter, Rosie, representing his love for family, were among the symbols brought up to the altar for the service.
Also brought up as symbols were a pot of blackberry jam, representing his patience and dedication in spending hours picking blackberries; and a recent photo of Mr Kelly taken in a cornfield, showing him as a “happy and content man”.
President of Ireland Michael D Higgins, Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue and Fine Gael TD Joe McHugh are among those attending the service.
Hugh and Donna Harper, the parents of 14-year-old victim Leona, were also among the mourners at the funeral service.
Fr Duffy told mourners on Friday that families were still in shock, numb, and “we still do not know what we are feeling”.
“We are a community that is carrying a broken heart, but together we will work together to help us through this darkness and grief.”
He said that “we feel, President, that you and the country are holding us, holding both Creeslough and Donegal”, and “stepping together, walking together and caring for each other, and that is so important”.
Fr Duffy once again urged people affected by the tragedy to contact local counselling services – saying he himself intends to do so.
He said: “If you go down to Doe point or if you look at the rocks at Lagha, you will see the strength that is in rock, it’s solid and it’s strong.
“But either down at Doe point – Hughie’s home – or in Lagha, you will see the sand, and sand is not strong.
“Dear friends, none of us are rocks, we are the sand, our bodies are fragile, as well we know.
“But even more fragile is our minds.
“We are the sand. We need help, we need the continued embrace of this country and beyond it, and prayers, and also very much so the professional supports that are being made so available to us, and thank all who are involved in that.”
The funerals of Jessica Gallagher, 24, and Martin McGill, 49, were held in Creeslough on Tuesday, while those of Catherine O’Donnell, 39, and her son James Monaghan, 13, were held in Creeslough on Wednesday afternoon.
A service for James O’Flaherty, 48, was held on Wednesday morning in Derrybeg.
The funeral of Martina Martin, 49, was held in Creeslough on Thursday morning and a service for Leona Harper was held at St Mary’s Church in Ramelton later that day.
The funeral service for the youngest victim, Shauna Flanagan Garwe, five, and her father Robert Garwe, 50, is to take place in St Michael’s Church on Saturday morning.
