Creeslough priest says trauma counselling helped him cope

The numbness and shock of the Creeslough tragedy has started to ease as the County Donegal village comes to terms with the deaths of 10 people, a parish priest has said.

Fr John Joe Duffy told BBC News NI he has sought counselling and encouraged others in the community to do the same.

On Monday, the first of several month’s mind Masses were held.

Four men, three women, two teenagers and a five-year-old girl were killed in the explosion on 7 October.

“I found help myself from counselling and it’s something I encourage,” Fr Duffy explained.

A service set up to support people affected by the explosion has been accessed nearly 200 times, the Irish Health Service has said.

A remembrance service for 49-year-old victim Martina Martin was held on Monday evening at Creeslough’s St Michael’s Church, the first of several month’s mind Masses to be held this week.

“Numbness and shock is beginning to ease and it’s becoming all the more apparent the reality of what we have faced and are facing,” Fr Duffy told BBC’s Good Morning Ulster programme on Tuesday.

“It’s very important to have professional counselling, but also there is other types of counselling as well.”

Fr Duffy believes people could benefit from a multi-faceted approach to accessing support and said there are various ways people can help come to terms with what happened.

“People are meeting through sport, through the youth group here in the community and meeting in various ways here in the church,” Fr Duffy said.

“It has to be a joined-up approach going forward and healing in different ways and different mediums.”

Fr Duffy has said many people in the village have taken great comfort from the thousands of supportive messages they have received from the island of Ireland and across the world.

“Thank you very much, thank you for the messages that have kept us going and we very much appreciate them all,” he said.

An Garda Síochána (Irish police) have opened more than 500 lines of inquiry into the explosion.

Fr Duffy said everyone is doing their best to move the investigation into the explosion forward and said he prays that it will give answers.

“We all hope there will be a conclusion to the investigation that may give some answers as to how or why this happened.

“If there is something that can be learned from that to prevent anything like this ever happening again in this community or any other community that is the great desire.”