A LONDON-BORN Irishman who came home to look after his ill mother, who has since died of cancer, is facing eviction from the council house where they both lived in Tipperary.
Neighbours have rallied in support and signed a petition deploring the proposed eviction, which will be presented to the council this week.
Brendan Walsh (40), who is single, moved to Ireland four years ago to join his mother Monica, who had returned earlier. She had emigrated “from a big family on a small farm” during “the tough times” and married a man from Mayo in England. She worked as a cleaner there.
“Mum always missed Ireland” and was thrilled that “she finally got a house and her dream came true”, Mr Walsh said.
The “dream” home was a modest terraced house provided by Tipperary Town Council on the Three Drives estate where many houses are empty and boarded-up and residents complain of illegal dumping and rats. But, says her son, she was “happy to be home in Ireland”.
However, she was lonely after a marital separation, suffered from poor health and suggested to her son that he should come back, “there’s lots of work here”.
He arrived in 2005 to a country he had known only during brief childhood visits and found employment on construction sites.
An acquaintance said: “Brendan Walsh had two priorities in his life: one, to take care of his mother who was frequently ill and two, to earn an honest crust.”
Their happiness was short-lived. His mother died of cancer in last August and Mr Walsh lost his job some months later. He subsequently discovered that his employer “had not paid his taxes”.
After his mother’s death, Mr Walsh continued to pay the rent to the council until he was told last December that it was issuing proceedings against him. He was taken to court and ordered to leave the house by June 1st.
Neighbours are angry and baffled and have established an anti-eviction committee to help someone they describe as “a shy, lovely, decent man” to remain in his home.
A committee spokesman Michael O’Brien said he was concerned about Mr Walsh’s health as he was suffering from both “the shock of bereavement and losing his job” and was now living “in a siege mentality” fearing eviction.
Geraldine Hannon, who lives opposite, said: “We can’t allow him to be evicted – the house holds happy memories for him.”
She is scandalised by the prospect of yet “another empty house on this estate which would be boarded-up and vandalised”.
A council spokesman said Mr Walsh’s “name was not on the tenancy agreement”, there was no proof that he lived there and he had no right to remain in the house.
The council claims it is simply following national guidelines and that the house must be allocated to someone on the housing waiting list. Residents of the estate however point out that there is no demand for the houses – some of which have been boarded-up for six years.
Each of the windows in Mr Walsh’s house now carries a sign reading: “No Evictions Here”. Inside, he speaks about his fear of being made homeless or, an option which he dreads, having to return to what he intimates were very difficult circumstances in London.
“Reading and writing wouldn’t be my strong point,” Mr Walsh said, adding that he found it “very touching” that “the people around here [who] are the finest” had expressed solidarity.
He has kept the house “as Mum left it” surrounded by the few belongings she had brought home from England – a picture of the Holy Family; china souvenirs of Ireland; some items of furniture which have seen better days and “her teapots”.
“I want to stay,” he said. “This is my mother’s home, we were happy here.” Visibly distressed, he concluded: “Her memory keeps me going . . . if Mum was still alive, she’d say ‘stick it out; don’t let them drag you out’.”