Couple Ordered to Demolish House - any update?

zell12 · 20-03-2026 12:32PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122092449#Comment_122092449

Caller, that Rose one listened to your advice! in today's IT

Sigma101 · 20-03-2026 12:33PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124326601#Comment_124326601

All patriots, no doubt. It's funny that every time there's a an instance of someone consistently and flagrantly ignoring the law it becomes a cause célèbre for people who hate foreigners, even when it has nothing whatsoever to do with immigration.

Penn · 20-03-2026 12:34PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124326647#Comment_124326647

Let's face it, the "give it to charity" crowd would go and tear the building down themselves if the charity was going to move immigrants into it.

Ben Bailey · 20-03-2026 12:48PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124325290#Comment_124325290

My understanding is that the approach to planning in Italy is (a) build whatever you like (as long as you're going to live in it yourself) and pay xx Euro per square foot for planning ('Condone'), or (b) apply for planning & have it approved for x Euro per square foot. The only proviso is that you, as the original builder' remain responsible in law for any construction faults which arise with the structure even if you've sold it on. Great system.

Just to note that I'm relating this from memory & things may have changed since. But it's a great system, after all, who's going to build a house that falls in on top of you ?.

manatoo · 20-03-2026 01:02PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124326651#Comment_124326651

Exactly. "Give it to charity!!"….just charities that are definitively racist in their tenant selection criteria….

breezy1985 · 20-03-2026 01:11PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124326683#Comment_124326683

Ah ya Italy and its famously robust corruption free legal system with its hordes of "legitimate businessmen" involved in construction.

Ya we should really copy that booming bastion of common sense.

hoodie6029 · 20-03-2026 01:12PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124326683#Comment_124326683

Italy, where streets have slid down mountains because of uncontrolled building? Where people have built near fault lines and where lava is likely to flow?
Not a system we should be replicating

standardg60 · 20-03-2026 01:18PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124326683#Comment_124326683

They're still waiting for that chap in Pisa to come back and sort his tower out..

Westernview · 20-03-2026 01:22PM

Build what you want is not a recommended way to go with any planning system. We may own the site but the way the site is developed alters the overall look pf the landscape. It makes perfect sense to have guidelines on what looks appropriate within an Irish context. Hence the rural housing guidelines that many county councils provide to the public. Even within those guidelines there is plenty of options for different house types.

Plenty of those saying we should be allowed to build what we want would be very quick to object to wind turbines and factories and even other houses nearby due to 'loss of visual amenity'. Without planning we have no say in how our surrounding areas are developed.

Oscar_Madison · 20-03-2026 01:42PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124326622#Comment_124326622

Immigrants something something….housing crisis something something…homeless something something…tax payers..something something…and then Mickey Mouse

She certainly hit on the usual suspect buttons in her interview - that sort of commentary attracts the usual rent a mob of louts -no wonder there were guards and CCTV installed- that wasn’t to monitor this family- it was likely in case some nut jobs took it upon themselves to “support” her cause.

Sooner this house is an ex house the better

JVince · 20-03-2026 01:43PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124326481#Comment_124326481

so you can't give any examples

Typical racist - unable to answer

muffler · 20-03-2026 01:45PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124326481#Comment_124326481

Good thread with great posts. Pity you had to lower the tone with the personal abuse.

argentum · 20-03-2026 01:52PM

Maybe they could have turned it into an unauthorised IPAS centre to annoy the Mrs

I wouldnt go blaming the kids for any of this , they have just lost their only home and I definitely feel sorry for them.

I wonder did their solicitor who they used to buy the field not find the sterilisation order in the first place or was it ignored

chooseusername · 20-03-2026 02:12PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124326858#Comment_124326858

If they were buying a field as opposed to a site to build on, would the solicitor be searching I wonder?
Or maybe they were sold a pig in a poke, if they bought before the sterilisation.

It was only a matter of months from the time planning was granted for the other bungalow until the Murray’s applied for their first planning (10 months I think)

Homer · 20-03-2026 02:17PM

warm fuzzy feeling seeing that 👌🏻🤣

Caquas · 20-03-2026 02:22PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124325896#Comment_124325896

I call BS on your farmhouse story.

Where is this wondrous "hidden" house that only you and your dog have spotted?

Where are the neighbours who won't blow the whistle? Are you living in an island off our south coast e.g. Sicily or Sardinia?

Hooking up a new house to electricity and water without permission from ESB Networks and Uisce Eireann is a criminal offence (unlike planning permission which is why the Murrays were not locked up 20 years ago).

Has your mother complained to the Council about the "pool hall"? Has no local media taken any interest in the scandal? Why bring your story to Boards where nothing can be done about it? Are you trying to pretend that the Murrays were only doing what other are getting away with. How corrupt!

Penn · 20-03-2026 02:32PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124326923#Comment_124326923

The issue which cropped up in the 20 years since it was built is that the sterilisation order was never completed. It was a condition of planning for the applicant of the house in the corner of the site who I believe then sold the rest of the site to the Murrays, but it was never formally drawn up or signed.

The Murrays tried to use that in one of their later appeals after it came to light, however it's largely irrelevant. Whether the sterilisation order was in effect or not (and it could be argued that the sterilisation order was tacitly agreed to by the applicant by accepting the conditions of the granted planning permission and constructing their building), the Council still had the right to refuse permission on the site to prevent over-development (the core reason why they wanted the sterilisation order). The Murrays built the house without planning regardless of there being a sterilisation order in place or not.

Westernview · 20-03-2026 02:43PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124326958#Comment_124326958

Even if it were true it's not comparable to this situation anyway. If developments are hidden away to such a degree the council planning enforcement section can hardly be expected to act on something they are unaware of. As opposed to a very large 2 story house in this case.

Kaisr Sose · 20-03-2026 02:58PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124327010#Comment_124327010

If I recall correctly, the council acted on foot of a complaint they received. It was not their own processes that picked this up.

If that is the case, it just highlights how poor planning control in general is.

Glad to see the teeth of planning enforcement have finally bitten.

Oscar_Madison · 20-03-2026 03:05PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124326940#Comment_124326940

I just see that as representing 20 years of complete waste of time effort and money and a whole heap of stress- why did they take all that on?
Complete madness

Homer · 20-03-2026 03:11PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124327079#Comment_124327079

they’ve quite clearly never heard the “when you’re in a hole stop digging” also they must have a greedy ba&*ard solicitor who kept encouraging them to lodge frivolous appeals. Wonder how much it cost us taxpayers to defend this nonsense for 20 odd years 🤬

Montage of Feck · 20-03-2026 03:15PM

According to the fringes of the media, if they have had turned the house into an iPAD centre they could have kept the place from demolition.

Penn · 20-03-2026 03:16PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124327111#Comment_124327111

An iPAD centre? Not sure there'd be enough pedestrian foot-fall down that cul-de-sac for an Apple Store

Lewis_Benson · 20-03-2026 03:20PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124327118#Comment_124327118

Brilliant, got there before me.

GavPJ · 20-03-2026 03:22PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124325425#Comment_124325425

A lot of begrudgery and angry mob style comments. Out with the pitchforks and burn the place down

sort of opinions. Yes the Murray's did wrong. There had to have been another way of sorting this out.

I've passed through Bohermeen/Greetiagh quite often and the whole place around the Jamestown Bog

area etc. has been destroyed with illegal dumping. If anything the house improved the area. Meath County

Council don't seem to be in a hurry to tackle the illegal dumping that has ruined the area or took steps to

protect the lands that are being used as illegal dumps. Everyone knows where the house is, go and take a walk

there and you will see the mess.

Penn · 20-03-2026 03:27PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124327131#Comment_124327131

"There had to have been another way of sorting this out."

There wasn't. Nothing was permitted to be built on the land, so the only outcome was demolition. This was literally the only possible outcome. The fact it's taken this long is solely down to the Murrays dragging it through every court they could and delaying with further applications & appeals which they knew in advance would not be granted.