From the Creeslough explosion to Aisling Murphy’s death – the stories that shaped us in 2022

I received a call from my editor. The details were scant, but there were fears multiple lives had been lost in an explosion at a garage in rural Donegal.

Eavan Murray: Tears and desperation amid the carnage of Creeslough

I checked my map and saw Creeslough was at least three hours away. And I was the nearest journalist to the scene. I left almost immediately.

The further north I drove, a feeling of dread settled over me. I knew what was coming was bad. How bad I didn’t know.

The minute I left Letterkenny, I met an endless succession of oncoming flashing blue lights from ambulances.

It was a pitch-black, wet, windy night on an unforgiving rural road. I knew what was ahead was hell.

When I finally arrived, I started running towards the blast site. I met groups of local people clinging to each other. I stopped everyone, apologised, explained who I was, and asked if they could tell me what had happened and what they knew.

“It’s wild bad,” said the first man. His partner, in tears, said: “There are wee children in there.”

I rounded the bend, and the blast site came into view.

A crowd of around 20 people stood stunned at the cordon, staring straight ahead as rescuers scrambled through the rubble.

At this point, three people were confirmed dead and differing reports said up to seven people were trapped inside.

At 1 am, the cordon opened, and along with locals who had family members trapped in the mangled rubble, I stood directly across the road from the blast site.

For the first time I saw the scale of the carnage within.

The realisation slowly crept over me there couldn’t possibly be any survivors inside the shell of the building. All was lost.

It was a moment that will never leave me.

​​Conor Feehan: The senseless and random death of Ashling Murphy

​The killing of teacher Ashling Murphy (23) on the banks of the Grand Canal in Tullamore, Co Offaly, on the afternoon of January 12 is for me one of the most memorable and heartbreaking event of 2022.

I travelled to Tullamore and to her home townland of Blueball in Co Offaly the morning after it happened to report on the unfolding news story.

The warmth and kindness her family showed me when they took time to tell me about Ashling is something I can never forget. They told me how Ashling wanted to share all the things she loved in life, like her love of traditional music.

The reaction of the communities where Ashling grew up and where she worked were mirrored in the reactions of families and communities all over the country, and I think that was because every family could identify with Ashling and the Murphys.

She was a young woman full of hope, promise and talent, just getting into her stride in life. She was selfless and giving, and any one of us would be proud to call her a sister, a daughter, an aunt, a friend, a partner.

Her death just seemed so senseless and so random, and because of that it was so shocking.

Eilish O’Regan: That moment the mask was lifted, and we felt the pandemic was over