The Irish Red Cross Creeslough Community Support Fund was established as an immediate humanitarian response to the human tragedy that arose following a fatal explosion in the village of Creeslough, County Donegal on 7th October, 2022. Ten people lost their lives, several were injured and many lost their homes, apartments and jobs. The explosion demolished a shop and filling station and a block of apartments. The village was closed to all traffic for six weeks, disrupting the lives of all residents and businesses, who experienced widespread travel and transport difficulties. People were traumatised individually, as families, and collectively as a community. This trauma continues to exist and emerge at all those levels today.
The Creeslough Appeal raised €1,957,609 from a range of corporate and individual donors, and community fund-raising activities. This provided financial humanitarian aid to those impacted by the tragedy, with a particular emphasis on support for bereaved families and those injured. Over 6,000 individual donations were made to the fund led by the Irish Red Cross fundraising team and supported significantly by Applegreen, An Post, Optium, AIB, Tesco, Bank of Ireland, the Ireland Funds, Calor Gas, the Celtic Football Club, the Abbey Hotel Donegal and many others.
A National Oversight Committee was established by the Irish Red Cross to provide a governance framework from the outset, and it oversaw all expenditure for individuals and families from the Fund. The committee comprised local representation, an independent finance member and members from Irish Red Cross Board and Management.
A total of €1,745,857 (89.2%) was disbursed in direct ex-gratia payments to those impacted by the tragedy. This comprised emergency payments in the initial phases and transitioned to a more planned spending pattern in the latter phase, including payments of calculated lump-sums to beneficiary groups (bereaved families; injured individuals; those made homeless and those who lost apartments).
An amount of €46,346 (2.4%) was spent from the fund to cover unavoidable third-party costs such as PayPal/Stripe banking charges, as well as necessary professional advisory services to assist disbursement, including tax advice for recipients, travel and accommodation costs to maintain a regular staff presence in Creeslough.
The Irish Red Cross waived its standard fee of 7%, normally charged to such fundraising appeals to cover the costs of administration, organisational oversight, governance, management, quality and compliance. The Irish Red Cross donated additional value of more than €70,000 in salary costs for staff engaged in supporting people in Creeslough, including one experienced senior staff member who was on the ground locally a number of days each week for over six months immediately after the tragedy and regularly during 2024 and 2025, ending in July 2025.
Research has established that community resources (including facilities, memorials and memorial activities, art and literature) all serve important functions in the healing process of collective trauma. Consistent with this, a notional amount was allocated from the very start towards community development over the medium to longer term. Priorities were identified by the community during several community consultation meetings held by Irish Red Cross over the past two years, to plan this expenditure in a manner which best served the interests of the community and those affected by the tragedy.
A locally based Advisory Committee gave valuable guidance on the selection of successful projects submitted in an open competition under three strands identified by the community (trauma support, youth development/support and commemorative projects). This was relevant solely to phase 3, the final phase of the initiative.
The amount of €165,406 (8.4%) remaining in the fund was distributed in funding to 14 community organisations to provide a variety of facilities/activities including creation of reflective spaces, commemorative gardens/walks, mental health supports, youth activities and clubs developing facilities. As all remaining funds are now fully disbursed, the Fund is closed.
Irish Red Cross garnered additional funding of circa €20k from sources outside the Creeslough Fund to enable one organisation to train its members in trauma support therapy. The Irish Red Cross will also make available at its own cost Psychological First Aid training within the Creeslough community. These interventions will provide a continuing legacy of support to people within the Creeslough community and those affected by the tragedy.
Irish Red Cross is very appreciative to so many organisations (commercial, statutory and community) and individuals for their financial support and their hands on co-operation, without whose continuous support our humanitarian aid could not have been provided.
For any queries, please contact Liam O’Dwyer at lodwyer@redcross.ie, sharing your contact details (email and phone number). We will respond as soon as possible.