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Derrygonnelly minister comforts Creeslough community

A FERMANAGH rector has been comforting the people of Creeslough following the devastating explosion earlier this month.
Rev David Skuce, who is from Derrygonnelly and previously served as Church of Ireland minister in Maguiresbridge and Derrybrusk, and Inishmacsaint Parish, was appointed Rector of the Dunfanaghy Group of Parishes in 2019.
He joined Archbishop Eamon Martin, Bishop of Raphoe Alan McGuckian and local Parish Priest Fr John Joe Duffy at the blast site in the Donegal village last week.
Rev Skuce described what had happened as “devastating” and said that as time went on there was a growing realisation of just how many people had been impacted by the tragedy.
He added though that “for every Good Friday there was an Easter Day”, a light in the darkness that has gripped Donegal in recent days.
“As time goes on and the dust settles you begin to realise how more and more people have been affected by what happened,” he said.
“For example I was doing something last night and someone from Canada rang to say someone from Dunfanaghy had died. I hadn’t heard of anyone from Dunfanaghy having died and I rang someone who has lived in the area a lifetime and they hadn’t heard either.”
James O’Flaherty had only ducked into the Applegreen service station on a quick errand. Originally from Sydney in Australia, he lived in Rinclevan, Dunfanaghy, with his wife Tracey and son Hamish. The 48-year-old was laid to rest yesterday following funeral Mass in Derrybeg.
“Little did I realise that there was someone I probably would have met who had died. But it’s just amazing that someone from Canada knew of that,” said Rev Skuce. Despite all the pain and suffering though, he said he firmly believed the power of God would win through.
“There is an awful lot of good will come out of this,” Rev Skuce said.
“You have heard about the emergency services from the north and south and how they worked together and you have the response of the community locally and nationally. Good overcomes evil and from a Christian perspective mankind did the worst to Jesus on the cross on Good Friday.
“People thought that was it, it was all over and done with. But we forget what happened three days later, good triumphed over evil and to me the power of God raised Jesus from the dead. For every Good Friday there is an Easter Day and that is my hope, that is my belief, that there will be light at the end of this.”

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