Creeslough explosion: 'These are the toughest of days' - priest

Fr John Joe Duffy says the deaths of 10 villagers in Friday's explosion is taking its toll

Twice in one day, the County Donegal village of Creeslough fell silent.

Twice a community stood, shoulder to shoulder, outside St Michael's church.

Just hours apart, two of the 10 people killed in Friday's petrol station explosion were laid to rest.

A sense of sorrow runs deep now in a community struggling to absorb the scale of tragedy that has unfolded here.

Local woman Sally, a cousin of victim Martin McGill, was among the many to attend both funerals.

Like many here, she knew almost all those killed.

"Everyone is devastated," she said simply.

Lone salute

As the hearse carrying Jessica Gallagher was driven through the village, family, friends and neighbours gathered to remember.

Jessica had travelled the world but had come home to start her career.

Later, a lone piper accompanied the funeral cortege of Martin McGill as it made the short distance from his family home to St Michael's.

One man offered a salute as the cortege passed, another standing nearby wiped tears from his face.

In the coming days, this community will stand together again for its family, friends and loved ones.

A piper played as the hearse carrying Martin McGill, 49, arrived at St Michael's Church

"We are beyond shock now," local man Eamonn McFadden told BBC News NI.

"It is even harder at this stage to make any sense of it."

St Michael's church, a simple white place of worship, sits at one end of the village, in the shadow of Muckish mountain, closest to the neighbouring town of Dunfanaghy.

At the other end of Creeslough's main street, a single Garda (Irish police officer) mans a cordon, diverting traffic away from the Applegreen service station, the site of Friday's explosion and subsequent rescue and recovery efforts.

Mourners watched the coffin of Jessica Gallagher, 24, leaving St Michael's church after her funeral Mass

The petrol station, its shop and post office were at the centre of the town and at the heart of this community.

It's where children pleaded with parents for an ice-cream, or an after-school treat.

It's where Creeslough's elderly picked up their pensions, where workers popped in for a deli lunch, where passers through stopped to fill their tanks.

It was home to the village's only cash machine.

On any given day, at any given time, it bustled with activity.

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"How can something, in such a split second cause the devastation that we saw in just an instant, out of nowhere?," asked Eamonn.

"This isn't a war zone, this is a wee quiet rural country area. People are in and out of that shop all day everyday, now this is where we are."

In this part of the county, people have always relied on one another.

Never more so than now.

Creeslough falls silent as the hearse carrying Martin McGill, 49, arrives at St Michael's Church, Creeslough, for his funeral mass

"These are the toughest days, days that you can never imagine," parish priest Fr John Joe Duffy told BBC News NI.

"It has taken a toll on us all."

The community is heartened, he said, by the outpouring of support from across the island, and the world.

But Creeslough, Fr Duffy said, needs "thoughts and prayers".

"We need them because how is anyone here expected to come to terms, to cope with what has happened?"

On Wednesday, the funerals of James O'Flaherty, and Catherine O'Donnell and her son James are due to take place.

Leona Harper and Martina Martin will be buried on Thursday.