Tuesday, February 18, 2025

Eviction threats temporarily lifted

Although nothing has been stated so far, and officially the tenants of the 38-acre Edmondstown/Killynan cowpark near Turin GAA grounds are still under orders from Westmeath County Council to remove themselves from the cowpark land, following a stand-off drama early on Wednesday morning last, Topic was told on Tuesday, 22 July that after a meeting between Council officials and the tenant farmers, they will reply to the Council when they receive details in writing of the Council’s new proposals.

On Tuesday of last week, 15 July, a distraught woman visited Topic offices, Mrs. Anne Harte, Reynella, one of the farmland tenants for close to 40 years, to tell us how she was unable to sleep from worry, with the imminent threat hanging over her of eviction. She was using the land where she and her family have farmed their cows and calves, for decades without a break.
Following our story last week on the cowpark eviction threat, Topic received phone calls shortly before 6am on Wednesday morning, 16 July, to say there was a stand-off situation at the Turin cowpark, with the Gardaí and Council representatives present, as well as the tenants and some supporters.
When Topic arrived, and spoke to Mrs. Harte and the other tenants, they were upset, having been there from the previous midnight, and having been told to vacate the lands. There was a cattle lorry parked outside Turin Church, ready to come and remove the animals on the land. The cowpark gate was locked. It appears the Gardaí were there in case of a breach of public order.
After some time, following phone calls made to others, the Council representative, Mr. Liam Higgins said he was giving the tenants an hour to remove the animals, and he then joined those waiting with the lorry outside Turin Church. It subsequently transpired – after Mr. Higgins had twice more returned to the cowpark with Gardaí – that someone decided not to attempt to remove the animals that morning, and the tenants told Topic they had been told the Council was to pursue “the legal route”, but they didn’t know what this meant. Neither were they sure of their situation, and so they remained at the cowpark for a further period.
Topic learned later last week that an approach had been made to those on the cowpark lands, suggesting that the Council would allow them to remain on 18 acres of the cowpark property until November of this year, if they vacated the other 20 acres immediately.
It appears that this was the basis for a discussion between Council representatives, including Council Chairman, Cllr. Paddy Hill (FF), Mr. J.P. Dalton, Council Head of Finance Mr. Liam Higgins, Property Management section, and the cowpark tenants on Tuesday morning in Mullingar .
On Tuesday afternoon, 22 July, Mrs. Anne Harte from Reynella (Turin), her son Paul, and representatives of the other families involved visited Topic office, with Mrs. Harte looking far less upset than a week earlier, as they explained their situation.
“The Council put forward their plan, and we asked for it in writing, so that we could consider it and respond,” the tenants explained, and we take it that was agreed. “We spoke with them for about half an hour, and we want to see, in writing, what they told us. We will respond. They want us out by November from the land and offered 18 acres until then, which is at the wrong end of the cowpark, to which there is no easy access.”
Describing the current position “as much more positive”, Margaret Glennon asked “Are we supposed to sell all our animals by November? The sheriff has already come and told us we must get out, or else. That was not mentioned today, nor the stand-off last Wednesday. We understand the Council has already let the land to another person, even while we had our cattle on it. Is that what November means?”
They emphasised that if deprived of their single farm payment, they would all be extremely badly hit.
They still raise question marks about the claimed rights of the Council to evict them from the lands, since they have been in location there, without interruption, for up to 40 years and at least more than thirty years, and have paid their six months rent without fail every six months.
Westmeath County Council, in their document sent to Topic, say that in 2006, the Council members decided in relation to cowparks to sell them and, to “ensure the assets would benefit the wider local community rather than the few who currently use them.”
Their new policy was to rent cowpark lands on a standard Grazing Agreement Licence, they stated.
The letter sent by Regan McEntee Partners (Trim), to the tenants and confirmed by the Sheriff, when he called to their houses, stated they must be out by 16 July, otherwise the animals would only be released after seizure, after all impounding costs and expenses were discharged. They would then also have to “satisfy the Council that they had legal access to sufficient land upon which to graze the animals and prove compliance with all relevant regulations.” If not, the aniamals could be “disposed of at the discretion of the Council, and the costs of disposal, storage and impoundment claimed from the owners.”

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