Farmer considers hunger strike over €300 fine for intimidating walkers

A SLIGO farmer is prepared to go on hunger strike or even to jail rather than pay a court fine.

Andy ‘Bull’ McSharry, 41, was convicted in Grange District Court in Sligo last week of intimidating two walkers who had walked on his lands.

When Mr McSharry caught up with the couple, they were on a public road.

He was fined €300 by the judge but said yesterday that he has no intention of paying it.

“I am considering going on hunger strike to highlight my case,” he said. “I have gone to the doctor for a full medical. Whatever happens to me happens. If that means a 15-day jail sentence, so be it.”

Mr McSharry, who models himself on the Bull McCabe character from John B Keane’s The Field, has consistently refused to allow walkers cross his 225-acre farm in Gleniff, Co Sligo.

Last March, a couple from Meath had finished walking across his land when Mr McSharry and his cousin, PJ ‘Bird’ Gallagher, arrived.

They stood silently on the public road and took photographs of Fergal Murray and Fiona Hanlon Murray.

“My wife was undressing in the jeep and she was crying. I thought she was going to be attacked or raped,” Mr Murray told the court.

Mr McSharry said he had been careful not to speak to the couple and believed he had not intimidated them.

“My photographs speak for themselves,” he said.

Judge Oliver McGuinness did not comment on the photos but said it was intolerable behaviour to stare silently at someone on a “lonely mountain”.

Mr Gallagher was also fined €300. He is going to pay the fine because he is “a married man with a family”, according to Mr McSharry. He said the tourism industry has taken farmers for granted for too long and should pay for access for walkers.

Mr McSharry is legally entitled to keep walkers off his property but his stance has attracted strong criticism from groups such as Keep Ireland Open.

He said: “Since the court case I’ve had more walkers than ever on my land. Some of my fencing was damaged yesterday by five or six people. My case is even stronger than The Field because I own the property. Wrongs will be righted in the end.”

He has until July 3 to pay the €300 fine. The local branch of the Irish Farmers Association is meeting in Sligo on Thursday to discuss the situation.