Neighbours can’t help pay €63k bill for blocking Traveller family move

A man has told a court that his neighbours say that they can’t help to pay a €63,000 bill he is facing from an ill-fated court case seeking to prevent a Traveller family moving into their area.

At Ennis Circuit Court yesterday, Brendan Maguire told Judge Gerald Keyes that his neighbours — mainly elderly pensioners — have told him that they can’t help out.

The bill arises from a case Mr Maguire and four others, supported by 61 members of the Cullenagh Residents Association, took against North Tipperary County Council seeking to prevent them allocating a home to Charlie and Noreen O’Reilly and their eight children of Cullenagh, Ballina, Co Tipperary.