Comments on: Seven Gardai V One 50 year old woman on a ladder. Ireland 2010.

By: John mcDermott

John mcDermott — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 08:43:28 +0000

The local council probably felt compelled to act lest the rot spread?

By: Ben

Ben — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 18:55:05 +0000

Clicked on this to comment but Daniel has pretty much said it. Local Authorities only turf people out as a COMPLETE last resort … AND THEN SOME.

I would bet my house on the fact that there is MUCH more to the story than the non quality paper would let on. If there were that many gardai there i would hazard a guess that there was reason to have them there. They are there to protect the bailif’s or the county sherrif who have no powers of arrest etc.

You’ll prob find that this particular ‘family’ don’t have a sterling reputation with the gardai or the courts.

By: A Hive In Limerick

A Hive In Limerick — Wed, 19 May 2010 20:40:16 +0000

well that’s Ireland for ya! the Gardai only turn up on droves when it’s a minor matter.

By: aj@lecraic

aj@lecraic — Sun, 16 May 2010 20:23:03 +0000

And there was me thinking bailiffs were real hardened men able to handle themselves. 7 Gardai still seems over the top for inquisitive neighbours only there to view the ladder standoff.

By: Daniel Sullivan

Daniel Sullivan — Sun, 16 May 2010 20:00:07 +0000

I think the number of Gardai present at the end had more to do with the crowd that had gathered than it did the woman herself. According to some of the papers it was about 50/60 storm and I’d not especially want to be a bailiff trying to move someone out from their home with 50/60 of their neighbours surrounding me.

By: aj@lecraic

aj@lecraic — Sun, 16 May 2010 19:46:13 +0000

I figured there would be more to the story than what was reported in the paper – understand and agree with what you’ve said – it was more the seven gardai that got me.

By: Daniel Sullivan

Daniel Sullivan — Sun, 16 May 2010 14:01:31 +0000

They did not fall behind in their rent simply because the husband lost his job. The rent for the entire house was €100 per week and it appears there were 4 adults in the house either earning or drawing unemployment. And they couldn’t find €100 per week for the rent? For nearly 2 and a half years? There may be some other reasons behind this but it was not due to the husbands being unemployed. There are 1,000s of families up and down the country who have fallen on difficult times but they are making their payments.

This notion that they were making repayments and so shouldn’t be evicted masks the fact that they only started to make some repayments last September. And it is not clear exactly how much of the nearly 13K they had cleared to date or if they were consistently making those payments or were erratic in doing so. The idea that they’ve had no notice at any point that eviction was coming down the line is highly unlikely, they might not have been given notice of the time and date but they must have known it was coming. There are other families in need who would prioritise paying their rent and one of them should get the house instead.