"This is no place for holy statues": Carmelite nun at centre of planning row at Skibbereen court
Not many court cases begin with a judicial request for the removal of a statue of the Child of Prague from the courtroom, but here it set the tone.
Carmelite Nun St Irene Gibson now has a conviction for a breach of the Planning Development Act, but she made a fight of it.
The Carmelite Nun of the Holy Face of Jesus faced one charge of an alleged breach of Section 154 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended, in relation to an unauthorised development at Corran South near the village of Leap in West Cork.
When the matter was first heard last May, Judge James McNulty allowed Sr Irene and her younger colleague, New Zealander Sr Anne Marie, until yesterday to address issues at the site and to relocate.
But back in court yesterday, it was clear that matters had not been finalised and Sr Irene said she was pleading not guilty to the charge.
Before events began, Judge McNulty said while the court was respectful of all faiths and to those who venerate statues, "this is no place for holy statues".
And so Sr Anne Marie was asked to store the Child of Prague elsewhere while the hearing got underway.
Sr Irene had dispensed with her solicitor from the earlier hearing and she and Sr Anne Marie were deep in prayer before proceedings commenced, with solicitor for Cork County Council, Patricia Murphy outlining the background.
She said there had been five individual complaints about structures at Corran South, with the first Council letter sent to Sr Irene in 2016.
Six warning letters were sent to Sr Irene in total and a Section 154 notice was served on her on July 24 last year, after which the Council extended the expiry date "in the hope of compliance".
Judge McNulty queried why none of the complainants were in court. Mr O'Sullivan said all had ticked the box stating they could attend if required but a legal decision had been made not to ask them to do so.
Sr Irene said the reason for the non-attendance was that once the green two-storey building had been removed, which was the subject of the complaints, no one had an issue with what remained.
Bernadette Collins of the Council's enforcement section outlined how she served the notice and the court heard of a letter of reply from Sr Irene regarding the site, which had been home to an unauthorised garden centre back in 2000 and is on a flood plain.
Philip O'Sullivan, executive planner with Cork Co Co, served the Nun with a notice on July 2018 in relation to six issues: unauthorised access to the site, a steel storage container, a wooden chapel, seven pods or as he described them, garden sheds, a large concrete base, and a two-storey cladded green structure.
Mr O'Sullivan said he first received a complaint in 2016 about the site and that subsequent refusal of planning permission did not slow work at Corran South but actually accelerated it. "She was doing greater building after refusal of planning permission," Mr O'Sullivan said, adding "if that continues we have anarchy in the planning system".
"No one is above the law."
On visiting the site last Monday he was "met by a very abusive Nun", he said, adding "various disparaging words were said of me". The Nuns were still in residence, but the two-storey building had been removed, as well as three of the four pods or cells, with the "blind" access point closed.
Signage and fencing remained, as did three cells and the storage container.
A summons was served last January on Sr Irene, for whom another address of St Gerard's, Battery Road in Athlone, was given. In the witness box, Sr Irene swore on her own copy of the Bible. She stood, telling the Judge: "I feel very small. I am very small."
Prompted by Sr Anne Marie, she got into the swing of things. She said the two-storey building that was the subject of complaints had already been removed by the previous court date in May. She admitted it was "ugly", adding that "I made a big mistake in purchasing it". She said she placed seven advertisements on Donedeal and two on adverts.ie and others elsewhere before selling it "for a considerable loss".
She apologised for the green building, but was not backing down when it came to the other contentious aspects. "I would say that on the [remaining] sheds that are presently there, if we are to remove these we will be virtually homeless," she said. "We are living in them, believe it or not. We are very comfortable in them. We are not in third world conditions.
"We have no other accommodation at the moment, other than these two residential sheds." Another shed acts as a kitchen. "We are having to take the blessed sacraments within our bedrooms in a small hatch in the wall," she said. "We meet together in each other's cell, otherwise we are alone in silence."
She said they had made "every effort" to find alternative lodgings. As for a meeting on October 24, 2016, at which Independent TD Michael Collins spoke on their behalf, she said: "I left it up to this gentleman, this TD, to do all the talking."
When Ms Murphy argued that it should have been "abundantly clear" that the structures were unauthorised, she said she led a very busy life of prayer and had little time to study County Council laws. Ms Murphy praised the work done by the "diligent and hardworking" Nuns but said they had been told it was unauthorised. "If she [Sr Irene] says she is going to lose money then she is the mistress of her own misfortune".
Sr Anne Marie, a young Nun, then took the stand. To borrow a phrase, the mouse roared, the Kiwi belying her quiet and steady demeanour by taking aim at the Council in a prepared statement. She wrote her surname on a piece of paper she provided to the Judge, not wanting to provide it in open court, giving her name as "Sr Anne Marie of the Sacred Heart".
She then outlined how Sr Irene had bought the site of the former garden centre in 2016 and how it had been "her dream" to develop it into an area for amenity and recreational purposes.
Given the lack of public transport, the fact Sr Irene had no driving licence and her frugal lifestyle, the only option was to live on the site, Sr Anne Marie said. She said their funds and time were limited and from early on, interaction with the Council "has caused us extra stress, financial strain", describing the Council's approach as "coldhearted and bureaucratic way".
Citing aspects of planning regulations she argued that the dwellings were exempt from planning permission and said the two-storey building had been removed prior to the last court date but this and other efforts had been insufficient as far as the local authority was concerned.
"We are very disappointed with the harsh and unreasonable treatment we have received right from the start," she said, querying whether the Council knew that "the law was made to serve the citizens of this country, not vice versa, and that the first tool in their tool box should be a carrot, and not a stick"
She said the local authority was "vindictive and selective", adding: "We have decided to cut our losses and move on."
She said the weather and "a lack of strong and willing men" had delayed their efforts but "it is certainly not for the want of trying".
The loss suffered by Sr Irene was put at €75,000, in addition to impacting on her health and "finding ourselves practically broke and on the street," she said, referring to a "coldhearted and vindictive Council" that had driven two simple, peaceful Nuns off their own land.
In response to questioning from Patricia Murphy, Sr Anne Marie admitted that the concrete base that had been laid was not a temporary structure, with Sr Irene saying the area is damp. Ms Murphy said planning authorities must be objective, fair, transparent and consistent" and that any special conditions afforded to the Sisters would be deeply unfair to other members of society.
"There was a flagrant disregard for the planning regulations," she said, and any loss was due to Sr Irene's "own foolhardiness".
On a number of occasions Ms Murphy stressed that the Council had done all it could to avoid bringing the matter to court. As recently as last month at a meeting attended by the Nuns' former solicitor, the Council said if its requests were complied with it would seek to have the matter struck out with no order for costs.
Judge McNulty referred to the elements of the planning regulations cited by Sr Anne Marie and pointed out that they covered temporary dwellings on a site where a decision had been made to grant planning, facilitating buildings such as a site hut, toilet, canteen or office. Those dwellings are temporary and are to facilitate development on foot of a permission.
"In this case there was no permission," he said. "So it does not fall under the definition of a Class 17 exempted development."
He declined other submissions made by the Nuns and said contrary to the views they had outlined, he believed the Council and their officials had acted properly and fairly, countering the perception that the prosecution was coldhearted and harsh. He said if another Order of Nuns found unauthorised development beginning on adjoining lands, which would compromise their privacy, "I have no doubt that the local authority would take up the cudgels on a complaint by the Order".
He said the court was satisfied the prosecution had proven its case. He said he would overlook the issue of the green two-storey building since it had already been removed and acknowledged that Sr Irene paid €32,000 for the land and had carried out works costing in excess of €50,000.
Ms Murphy said the penalty on conviction was a fine not in excess of €5,000, up to six months in prison, or both.
Sr Irene said she and Sr Anne Marie had the offer of a residential dwelling house currently undergoing second fix repairs near Youghal in East Cork.
The offer had been made by a man in his seventies doing the work himself and Sr Irene said it was hoped they could be in by Christmas, while there was a potential buyer for the site near Leap.
Judge McNulty said:
"I am a great believer in 'the Lord provides'. But he will have to hurry up. You may have to pray harder, Sister.
"Sometimes if the prayer goes unanswered, that is your answer, but it seems like you are making progress."
The court was told that Sr Irene had no previous convictions and Judge McNulty deferred penalty until April 24 next in Skibbereen.
Later Sr Irene handed out some sheets of paper outlining its defence and a poem writen by a Carmelite nun and dated yesterday, before some time later emerging into the wind and rain, their faces covered by their habits and the Child of Prague in their arms.
Court hears nuns under threat of homelessness as Sister found guilty of planning breach
A Carmelite Nun has been found guilty of a breach of the Planning Development Act over unauthorised structures in West Cork, in a case in which the judge heard the two members of the Order faced becoming homeless and Cork County Council was accused by another Nun of being "vindictive" and "coldhearted".
St Irene Gibson, a Carmelite Nun of the Holy Face of Jesus, faced one charge in relation to a site she owns at Corran South near Leap. The case had previously come before Judge James McNulty in Skibbereen District Court in May, when Sr Irene and a recent entrant into the Order, New Zealand native Sr Anne Marie, were given until December 10 to make arrangements to move elsewhere.
However, back before Judge McNulty in Skibbereen today Sr Irene pleaded not guilty to the charge alleging a breach of Section 154 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended.
Sr Irene had no legal representation and gave evidence on her own behalf, while also calling Sr Ann Marie to the stand.
Both nuns claimed that one aspect of the structure, a green modular building which had been the subject of complaints by locals, had already been removed by the time of the last court date.
They told the judge they believed the remaining structures - four garden sheds, refashioned as cells, some fencing and signage and a storage container - were exempt from planning and were temporary dwellings.
Both nuns said Sr Irene had made a significant financial loss as a result and that they had been attempting to comply with requests from Cork County Council, referred to by Sr Anne Marie as "unreasonable", "vindictive" and "cold-hearted".
But solicitor for the local authority, Patricia Murphy, said the Council had "very reluctantly" brought the matter to court and argued that the Nuns had been given ample opportunity to comply with requests to cease and desist activity at the site.
Philip O'Sullivan, executive planner for the local authority, said there would be "complete anarchy" in the planning system if the Nuns were allowed to stay and the structures allowed to remain. He said he had visited the site just this week and found the Nuns were still resident. He said one of the Nuns had shouted at him and made disparaging remarks.
Ms Murphy said the Council first flagged the issue back in 2016 and at one point the Nuns attended a meeting on which Independent TD Michael Collins spoke on their behalf. Ms Murphy argued that the Nuns could not have been left in any doubt as to their obligations under the planning regulations and added that if Sr Irene now made a financial loss "she is the mistress of her own demise".
Judge McNulty said he was satisfied that the local authority had proved its case and convicted Sr Irene, but said he would defer penalty to allow the Nuns more time to move elsewhere.
The case was adjourned until next April, with Sr Irene telling the judge that an elderly farmer near Youghal in east Cork has offered them the use of a house which is currently under second fix repair. She also said she may have a buyer for the site near Leap.
Judge McNulty told her: "I am a great believer in 'the Lord provides' - but he may need to hurry up. You may need to pray harder, Sister."
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