Small hedge costs Wicklow couple hundreds of thousands in legal fees

A Wicklow couple are facing a six-figure legal bill after losing a bitter row with their neighbours over a boundary hedge.

The bitter ten-year row was over alleged damage to a portion of hedgerow near Clogga Beach outside Arklow.

James and Anne Madigan took legal action against their neighbours Kathleen Maureen Reuter and her children claiming their privacy had suffered.

But after an incredible seven days at hearing in the circuit court and a further six day appeal in the High Court, the Madigans have lost their case and have been ordered to pay all legal costs.

That is going to be a six figure sum, possibly several hundred thousand euro.

High Court President Nicholas Kearns said if the events of this case featured in the plot of John B. Keane's play 'The Field' audiences might find them too implausible to be credible.

"In John B. Keane's play there was a field at stake between the protagonists. In this case it is no more than a few feet of hedge" he said in his judgment today.