The father of a teenager killed in the Creeslough explosion tragedy has paid tribute to Garda officers involved in the ongoing investigation into the 2022 disaster.
Hugh Harper’s daughter, Leona (14) died when a suspected gas explosion ripped through a retail and apartment complex in the west Donegal village causing it to collapse on October 7 2022.
Leona was the last person recovered from the scene of the explosion. The teenager was one of 10 people killed in the tragedy, including three children. Mr Harper was speaking in advance of the second anniversary of his daughter’s death.
In the immediate aftermath of the explosion, gardaí launched a multi-agency investigation into the tragedy, including a painstaking sift through every remnant of the collapsed complex.
Four arrests linked to the investigation have been in the last six months. In March, two men aged in their fifties were arrested under the Republic’s Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act 1997 and later released without charge.
In May this year, a man and a woman were arrested and later released under the same legislation.
In an update given on Thursday, a Garda spokesman said: “The investigation, led by gardaí in Donegal division, is ongoing with the intention of submitting a file to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.”
With just three weeks until the second anniversary, Mr Harper paid tribute to the officers conducting the investigation.
“I believe that they are doing a good job and we have built a very strong relationship with them,” he said.
He and other families had a special bond with the officers, in particular those who were in Creeslough “on the day our little girl was killed”.
Mr Harper said: “We have learned to realise that at the end of the day, they are human beings with an incredibly demanding and challenging job. They may not have lost anyone in the explosion that killed 10 people and injured others but they have been affected.”
The full list of victims is: Leona Harper (14), Martin McGill (49), James O’Flaherty (48), Martina Martin (49), James Monaghan (13), Catherine O’Donnell (39), Jessica Gallagher (24), Hugh Kelly (59), Robert Garwe (50) and Shauna Flanagan-Garwe (5).
