Inconsiderate neighbour - looking for advice.

Recently bought a new-build terrace house in Dublin. Imagine the sacrifices that required!

Let's say we are in house no. 7 on a street of terraced houses. I am in my late 40s, female, sole carer to elderly parents in their mid 80s. I am also the sole breadwinner in the family and work full time.

In house no. 5 is a young family - male & female in mid 20s and two young children.

Noise - right from the time we moved in, there has been loud music from the neighbour. Heavy string music, bass & drums - all causing heavy vibrations going through the party wall into our house. We suffered in silence for a while but earlier this year (January 2025) I decided to raise the issue with the female neighbour only because I had an open line of communication with her via Facebook Messenger.

She actually conceded to me that the male in the house 'likes his music' and she is having to constantly tell him to 'lower it'. Her justification is he likes to listen to music while showering. This 'music-for-showering' can be heard in every room in our house on both the floors - I am not exaggerating.

This is not the only times when the noise nuisance happens either. There is the drums and bass happening during the weekends too. The vibrations can be felt through the party wall in the bedrooms on the first floor. We are unable to have a lie-in on weekend mornings or rest in the afternoons, if feeling unwell from the various infections that are going around in the winter.

The noise nuisance did not stop despite the request on Facebook Messenger. I was at my wit's end and put up a post in the Facebook discussion page of the housing estate about neighbours' noise nuisance. It was a general post purely to see who else in the estate had the same issue; there was no mention of our address or any indication of the identity of the neighbour. But this female decided to post replies on this open discussion forum, under her own name, that was visible to all 650 members of the Facebook group. It escalated and she was quite unpleasant to me on the forum. I responded as politely as I could.

Mind you, this is all in writing on Facebook without even realizing that she was incriminating herself - the female was all about justifying the male's behaviour and took the tone of 'like it or lump it - we will keep carrying on as we please'. There was also the threat of playing loud music at unsociable hours. As you can imagine on such social media 'discussions', someone totally unrelated joined in the neighbour's favour and suggested that I move house. As if it is that easy!

I have tried recording the noise on my android phone but it does not turn out very well. The thumping from the bass and drums is not really recordable but is 'feelable' and so very annoying.

What should I do about the noise nuisance that keeps continuing to this day?

Please don't say use ear plugs - no one can live with ear plugs all the time. Also, regular use of ear plugs cause ear infections.

What's worse - they don't even realize that the loud noises they are subjecting their young children to is adversely affecting their brain development.

Parking - Houses no. 3, 5 and 7 in a terrace have 5 no. parking bays right in front of our houses. The run of 5 parking bays is broken up by planting at both sides. There is no allocated parking for any house in this estate.

This male, who usually returns from work before me and even if all the 5 parking bays are empty, will only park in the parking bay nearest to our front door! This happens even when the parking bay right in front of his door (no. 5) is free.

Often, the male and the female and their visitors park over the lines or really close to it so the adjacent space cannot be used either.

Previously, when these neighbours were doing up their back garden, they dumped a whole lot of gravel in the parking bay nearest our front door, even when there is a small patch of front garden to the houses. Inconvenience others but not themselves! The male told me it would be gone by the following week. The gravel ended up staying there for months!

Having blocked the use of the parking bay nearest to my front door; the male and the female would park their respective vehicles in the next two parking bays, meaning I had to park in the fourth parking bay away from my door. Might not be a big deal for some. But was terribly inconvenient carrying heavy shopping in from the car, especially in bad weather. The 10 extra steps would cause additional pain to my parents with their arthritic joints. After a point, I started parking over the gravel. Then, thankfully, another neighbour wanted the gravel for their own garden and removed it for their use. The neighbour at no. 5 did nothing to resolve the matter for months, just dumped gravel in a public space and let it sit there.

The female in the Facebook discussion actually referred to themselves as nice neighbours. Would you agree?

My elderly mother is quite unwell. As you can imagine, this situation with the neighbours is causing me a lot of additional stress.

What would you do in my position? Please don't tell me to move. I have lived here less than a year. I don't think I will be able to move, by choice, in the next 20 years.