They live only a stone's throw from the RTÉ studios in Dublin, and it's just as well. If the O'Donovan family of Beech Hill Drive, Donnybrook, wanted to watch the Late Late Show last night, they would have had to attend it in person. Frank McNally reports.
Under the terms of a court order imposed yesterday, Anthony and Elizabeth O'Donovan will go to jail if they turn on their television after 10pm any time during the next five years.
The one-month suspended sentence imposed by Judge Bryan Smyth is the latest chapter in a long-running court battle between the parents of eight and their elderly neighbours, who have accused the O'Donovans of causing unacceptable noise levels late at night.
After two previous orders, Dublin District Court again found in favour of Rita and Sarah O'Hara and their brother Jimmy, who live next door to the O'Donovans, in the estate behind Donnybrook bus garage.
Rita O'Hara had complained of loud music at all hours, doors being banged, noisy arguments, and revving of car engines. Things had quietened down for a while after the earlier orders, she said, but not for long.
Anthony O'Donovan, a part-time chef who works for a Jesuit community in Ranelagh, claimed in court that most of the problems with his neighbours dated from their discovery in 1994 that one of his daughters - now living abroad - was on drugs.
"I have teenagers and they do listen to music," he said. "But I don't let them blare thumping music because I don't like it myself. I like Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin."
Judge Smyth said yesterday he was giving the O'Donovans one last chance. He imposed a one-month sentence, suspended for five years on condition that they kept noise levels down and observed a curfew on the playing of music or television between 10pm and 8am.
The O'Haras declined to speak last night, and Mr and Mrs O'Donovan were not at home when The Irish Times called. But Anthony O'Donovan jnr, one of six sons in a family aged from 15 to 30, said they would have no choice but to comply.
He said the family had moved to their council house about 12 years ago. Their new home was in a quiet corner of the estate, "where there hadn't been any young families for about 20 years", and they had never been accepted. The houses were old and poorly insulated, he said, and the floorboards "make a lot of noise".
Rita O'Hara told the court that she and her siblings had lived in Beech Hill Drive since the houses were built more than 50 years ago.
"There have been families of 14 and 21 people brought up here and there has never been anything like this," she said.