Nearly four years after the devastating 2022 Creeslough service station explosion that claimed 10 lives, families of the victims have secured a key commitment from Ireland’s national government: if ongoing official investigations fail to deliver the transparent answers they demand, a full statutory public inquiry will be considered to unpack the disaster.
The fatal blast tore through a village service station in County Donegal on 7 October 2022, leaving a tight-knit rural community shattered. The 10 victims ranged in age from 5 to adulthood, all hailing from Creeslough and its surrounding areas: Robert Garwe, his 5-year-old daughter Shauna Flanagan-Garwe, 14-year-old Leona Harper, Hugh Kelly, Jessica Gallagher, Martin McGill, James O’Flaherty, Martina Martin, and Catherine O’Donnell and her 13-year-old son James Monaghan. To date, no official cause has been confirmed, and no individuals have been formally charged in connection with the disaster, despite multiple arrests during the investigation.
A high-stakes meeting between Taoiseach Micheál Martin and victim families at Dublin’s Government Buildings has brought new momentum to calls for full accountability. Donna Harper, whose daughter Leona died in the blast, spoke publicly after the meeting about the government’s commitment. She explained that Martin has expressed caution about disrupting the ongoing active police probe, but confirmed the administration would be open to launching a statutory inquiry if existing investigations do not resolve the families’ outstanding questions. Harper called the outcome one she was “very happy” with.
Anthony Gallagher, another victim’s father who lost his daughter in the explosion, echoed the families’ core demand: full transparency. “Everybody needs to know what happened and why it happened and to be sure it never, ever happens again,” he noted, adding that the taoiseach did not rule out a full public inquiry.
A government spokesperson characterized the discussion as “open and constructive”, saying that Martin “listened to the personal testimonies of the families and articulated his deepest sympathies for their loss and the trauma that they have suffered. He understands their need for justice and for answers and reiterated the importance of allowing the investigation that is currently underway to come to a conclusion.” The spokesperson also confirmed that the official incident report from the Health and Safety Authority, one of the multiple agencies contributing to the probe, is expected to be finalized in the near term.
The current investigation is led by local officers of An Garda Síochána (the Irish national police service) in the Donegal Division, with backing from the Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation and other regulatory bodies including the Health and Safety Authority and the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities. Just months ago, in April 2026, Garda investigators submitted a second evidential file containing formal investigative recommendations to the Director of Public Prosecutions, supplementing an initial file sent to prosecutors in September 2025. Police have confirmed that families have been kept updated on all procedural developments, and dedicated liaison officers continue to provide support to grieving relatives.
This meeting marks the latest chapter in a years-long fight for clarity from Creeslough families. In 2024, Donegal County Council passed a formal motion calling on the national government to launch a public inquiry into the blast. A year later, relatives successfully blocked a planning application to build a new service station, shop and post office on the site of the 2022 explosion. Their legal team argued the development was deeply inappropriate while the criminal investigation remained active, and Ireland’s national planning body, An Coimisiún Pleanála, ultimately sided with the families and rejected the planning permission.