Rowing club’s claim of right of way dismissed

Claims by a 123-year-old Killarney rowing club for a right of way across a farmer's lands to a "magnificent" clubhouse on the shores of Lough Leane have been dismissed and the club closed, a court has been told.

Fossa Rowing Club, established in 1893, has now effectively been shut down, its barrister told Judge Terence O'Sullivan at Killarney Circuit Civil Court. This followed two days of evidence and a site visit by the judge in a dispute that erupted over two decades ago between the club and the local family.

The farmer, Cornelius A Dennehy, who once rowed with Fossa and would have liked to continue to accommodate it, said levels of aggression towards him by the club had become “unbearable” .

The judge said it was with some regret he was dismissing the club’s claim for right of way and for the more unusual customary right of way.

The club obtained planning in 2010 and erected “a magnificent club house” over an Easter weekend in 2012 .In 2010 the Dennehys had put up a gate across the narrow road. The club initiated proceedings in 2011.

The judge is to make an order for costs on Tuesday.