AN Achill woman who refused to comply with a court order to build a boundary wall and dispose of a rooster on her property was warned yesterday by a Circuit Court judge that she had to rectify matters by early in the New Year.
Mrs Myra Gallagher (62) of Achill Sound, Co Mayo, was in jail for almost two weeks last month for contempt of court. She later purged her contempt before Judge Harvey Kenny who, at a previous sitting in Westport, had ordered that she be sent to Mountjoy. The original order required her to build a wall or fence between her property and that of the family living next door and to dispose of a rooster which was causing friction.
Judge Kenny said she was guilty of "blackguardism of the highest order" and of causing great distress to her neighbours. She had done nothing to rectify matters other than increase the number of fowl on her land and cut down a tree on her neighbour's land.
He added that she had stood contemptuously before the court three, four or five times.
After Mrs Gallagher had purged her contempt at a hearing in Dublin, Judge Kenny adjourned the matter to Westport Circuit Court on January 28th next. But yesterday she was called before Galway Circuit Court when he expressed concern at the lack of progress in complying with the order.
She had gone to jail because of her failure to comply with the order, while her neighbour, Mr Peter Masterson, had commendably stood back from the matter, he said.
Judge Kenny then retraced the history of the controversy. Mrs Gallagher had built an extension to her home in 1991 without planning permission. She was later granted its retention provided she built a wall, which she had failed to do.
She had interfered with a boundary hedge. This had prompted Mr Masterson to serve her with a civil bill which she had refused to accept.
"This was blackguardism of the highest order. Mr Masterson was awarded costs. These have not been paid yet," the judge noted.
Last January, Mr Masterson had sought an injunction restraining her from entering his property, but she had not obeyed it. She later set fire to cuttings which had burned part of Mr Masterson's garage.
Mrs Gallagher had not complied with a court order to build the wall. She had not rectified land registry documents. She had laid tarmac and as a consequence flooded the plaintiff's land.
More than a month after her apology to the court, she had done nothing despite the offer from the people of Achill to put up the wall for her. Even Mr Masterson had offered to provide part of the wall.
Mrs Gallagher, who represented herself, interrupted the judge several times.
Anything she had done was on her own land, she said. She was prepared to pay 50 per cent of the cost of the wall and intended appealing the court order if she could obtain free legal aid. She accepted that she had "very good neighbours."
Judge Kenny warned, however, that it would be difficult for her if she had not appealed the case or started work on the wall before the hearing in January.