Woman claims harassment in land dispute with Minister

An elderly woman has claimed she was subjected to harassment and intimidation in a land dispute.

The legal battle between Diane Whitehead (72), Minister of State for Public Transport Alan Kelly and his father Thomas Kelly concerns access to a laneway close to their homes overlooking Lough Derg on the river Shannon, outside Portroe in Co Tipperary.

During evidence in a civil action being taken by Ms Whitehead at Nenagh Circuit Court yesterday, the plaintiff said she was using the laneway to access her field freely until 2010, when Alan Kelly began renovating his house.

All of a sudden cars were put on the laneway. She initially presumed this was due to the the “pressure of parking” but claimed it soon became clear it was to “block access”.

In September 2010, she said, Tom Kelly announced it was his laneway – an “aspiration which had become a fact”.

She said she wrote several letters to her solicitor to record what she “regarded as harassment and intimidation”.

In October 2010 after returning home from a day trip to London Ms Whitehead discovered a security firm had erected a barrier on the lane.

Two days later she received a letter from Tom Kelly suggesting they meet to discuss an amicable solution, which she found deeply offensive because "there was no chance of an amicable solution at this point as the barrier had already been erected".

'Seriously harassed'
In her evidence Ms Whitehead also claimed her neighbour Seán O'Halloran who had been using her field to keep his horses was being "seriously harassed" in his use of the laneway as he tried to drive along it.

During cross-examination by defence counsel Emer Costigan, the plaintiff admitted in 2009 she had installed a camera on a wall at the side of her house pointing in the direction of Alan Kelly’s house because of “nocturnal car creepers” coming and going at 3am in the morning.

Ms Whitehead, who lives alone, insisted she had no interest in spying on her neighbour Alan Kelly “who is 10 years younger than my own children”. The court heard the camera was removed after a month.

Ms Whitehead is seeking “unvetted access” to land she owns via a laneway. She claims she has been using the lane to access her land for the past 20 years “because it is townland commonage according to 1838 ordnance survey maps”.

Defence case
Ms Costigan said the plaintiff could not establish continued use of the laneway for 20 years and said it was her client's case that they owned the lane in question. Judge Petria McDonnell took some time over lunch yesterday to visit the site on Old Quarry Road, which is at the centre of the dispute.

In her evidence, Ms Whitehead, who was born in London but came to Dublin in the late 1980s, recalled how she purchased the property in 1987.

The court heard how Tom Kelly had invited his new neighbour “for tea” at his home in early 1988 after he had asked if she would be interesting in swapping one field for another.

Ms Whitehead said she told him she would need to get the “lie of the land” before she would consider swapping land.

The case continues today.