Family members have taken each other to court in a bitter land dispute over a farm left in a contested will in Co Donegal.
There are a total of four separate claims to the land left by the late farmer William John Kennedy of Correnagh, 5km outside Letterkenny.
Mr Kennedy died in 2007 and left a farm totalling 12 hectares to his niece Nora Kelly jnr. Ms Kelly, a nurse, had looked after the late Mr Kennedy for 20 years before his death. However, her mother, Nora Gildea (89), and two brothers Daniel and Christopher are now claiming various parts of the willed farm.
At Donegal Circuit Civil Court sitting in Letterkenny yesterday, Ms Kelly sought to establish ownership of the three pieces of land. In a counterclaim, Ms Kelly is being sued for ownership for one 1.8 hectare field by her mother, Mrs Gildea. Christopher Gildea is seeking ownership of all the 12 hectare holding of land while his brother Daniel is looking for ownership of a shed and some land around one of the sites.
'Hellish campaign'
Daniel Gildea is claiming rights to the shed and land he claims he has worked on for more than 20 years. Ms Kelly said her family had subjected her to a "hellish" campaign of intimidation since she received three pieces of land in the will.
Ms Kelly, a nurse, said her lands were blocked and that her brothers would walk behind her and intimidate her. She claimed she was forced to call the Garda in 2009 when her nephew Trevor had held a party in her late uncle’s house, and eventually an injunction against Chris and Dan Gildea and their families was granted last year after a number of other incidents, said Ms Kelly in her evidence.
The incidents included blocking access to her land with abandoned cars. On another occasion her mother had arrived with another man and had put horses into her field. She revealed she had undergone 27 sessions with a psychologist.
“I was ready to crack up,” she said.
Dan Gildea said William Kennedy allowed him to use a shed on his land in 1989 and moved into a mobile home while building a home close by. He is now claiming ownership of the shed and some lands on the land left to Ms Kelly jnr.
Scrap cars
Barrister for Ms Kelly, Peter Nolan, claimed that scrap cars were put on the land after 2011 in a bid to make it look like they had been there for years. Dan Gildea's sisters Carmel McMonagle, Ann Molloy and Maura Brown all claimed their brother had worked on cars in the shed and around it for up to 20 years. The court heard that both opposing family sides had placed cameras on their plots of land to film each other.
Dan Gildea’s son John told the court that the Kellys had made his and his family’s life hell. He also claimed Ms Kelly jnr’s husband, Paudge, had invited him to the lane to fight on two occasions.
“We couldn’t even go outside our front door without a camera being stuck in our face,” he said.
Jack Gildea (67), told the court that he was executor of the will of his uncle William. He told Mr Nolan he “just didn’t know” why his two brothers and his mother were suing his sister Nora and not him.
He told his family of the details of the will around 2009 and “they shook my hand”. He also described his uncle as being “mad about horses” and he allowed anyone who wanted to use his land to do so. His uncle had been kicked by a horse in 1998 and his sister Nora had cared for him from then until his death in 2007 at the age of 92, he said.
The case continues before Judge Mary Faherty.