DERRY JOURNAL Editorial: Remembering the bright lights extinguished

The ten victims of the Creeslough disaster. On left, Catherine O'Donnell (39) and her son James Monaghan (13). Top row, from left, Jessica Gallagher (24), Robert Garwe (50) and his daughter Shauna Flanagan Garwe (5). Middle row, Martina Martin (49), Hugh Kelly (59) and Martin McGill (49). Bottom row, Leona Harper (14) and James O'Flaherty (48).

Of Jessica Gallagher, whose 'radiant smile would light up a room'; of Martin McGill, a 'beautiful soul' from whom 'goodness flowed'; of James O'Flaherty, a 'fantastic, loving husband and father'; of Catherine O'Donnell, 'wonderful’ mother' to her ‘beautiful’ son, James Monaghan, who will be 'always side by side'; of Martina Martin, 'the kindest friend you could ever have’; and of Leona Harper, a 'miracle' who had 'shone brightly and beautifully throughout her short life'.

Today, and in the days ahead, we will learn more when Hugh Kelly (59), Robert Garwe (50) and Shauna Flanagan Garwe (5) - the oldest and the youngest victims of last Friday's catastrophic explosion - are laid to rest.

It has been an unbearable week for Creeslough, which has borne itself with such dignity in the face of one of the worst disasters in the history of the north west.

It is something from which, we know, the community can never fully recover.

To say otherwise would be a disservice to the dead and their families who are so terribly wounded at this time.

However, this resilient community will rebuild, remember and somehow carry on.

This week has been about celebrating and remembering the victims as they were in life as it would be wrong to define them only in terms of the senseless accident of last week.

Creeslough is a 'community bereft', as An Taoiseach Michaél Martin, said this week but we hope that it can take some comfort from the fact that the entire nation - right across the globe - is standing with it. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a n-anamacha.