Family warned if they reinstate marquee for wedding this Saturday it will be taken down

Cork City Council has been granted an injunction preventing a couple from re erecting a marquee in Mahon on the southside of the city for a wedding reception which is due to take place on Saturday.

The court heard that James and Julia Keenan of Meelagh Housing Scheme in Cork had erected a marquee in a vacant bay near their home for a wedding reception for their son who plans to marry his fiancée in Shannon, Co Clare this weekend.

Barrister for the local authority Meg Burke told Cork Circuit Civil Court on Friday the marquee was erected on Wednesday but has since been taken down.

She said the family had planned to hold a wedding reception with 40 guests at the site in Meelagh in Mahon on Saturday. However, current Covid restrictions only allow for 15 people to attend an outdoor festivity of this kind.

Judge Sean O’Donnabhain asked Ms Burke if the council was happy with an undertaking from the family not to re erect the marquee. The family voluntarily took the marquee down on Thursday night.

Judge O’Donnabhain asked if “it (the marquee) could go up as quickly as it came down” and the council responded that a court ruling was needed on the matter.

Ms Burke stated that a housing officer from the local authority had spoken to James Keenan about the marquee and he had initially refused to take it down saying he had spent a lot of money on the wedding reception for his son.

The marquee, which was supplied by an unnamed company in Tipperary, was subsequently taken down voluntarily by the family.

Ms Burke told the court the family lived at 7 Meelagh and the marquee had been erected at a vacant bay at 3 Meelagh in the halting site in Mahon.

She said the concern of the council was that extended family members of the defendants were involved in an escalating feud in the city. She stated that a shot was recently fired in an area in Mahon near the site of the proposed marquee.

However, she stressed she was in no way suggesting that the defendants were involved in the feud.

Judge O’Donnabhain granted the injunction against the defendants who have been informed that if they reerect the marquee for the wedding the local authority will have the power to take it down.

The judge said the plaintiff was at liberty to enter the site and remove it if it is re erected.

Ms Burke also expressed concern about a wedding reception being held at the site without the presence of a marquee.

However, Judge O'Donnabhain said the policing of such an event if it occurred would be a matter for An Garda Síochána.

The judge reserved a decision on costs in the case until Monday.

Neither of the defendants were present in court and the injunction was granted on an ex parte basis.