One billboard outside Abbeydorney, Kerry: Couple lose patience with drivers

A fed-up cottage-owner has revealed how she was driven to swear in a traffic-stopping sign outside her home after her stone wall was repeatedly smashed by late-night motorists, writes Lynne Kelleher.

Valerie and Raymond Knight painted the slogan in front of their cottage outside the village of Abbeydorney in Kerry: “Will the bastards who keep smashing my wall stop. I’m too old for this.”

Valerie, 70, who has rebuilt her wall seven times with her own hands since it first went up 20 years ago, said it has been demolished twice in the last two months.

The grandmother said she hopes the colourful language in her sign will get drivers’ attention as they drive down a hill towards her home.

“There is a swear word,” she said. “I’m not holier than thou but publicly like that I really was driven to it.

“Cars are slowing down to read it which is a good thing.

“It’s a dry-stone wall which I started building 20 years ago myself. Over the years, it’s been smashed seven or eight times by cars belting down the hill.

“At this stage I’m 70 and I can’t lift the stones any more because I’ve arthritis in my hands and I’m seriously fed-up now.

“Just before Christmas, eight or nine feet was smashed by a car who bounced into it sideways and three weeks later a tractor and trailer knocked three feet off the wall a bit further on. It’s a regular occurrence. We’re in a dip at the bottom of a hill on a bend.”

A car drives past Valerie Knight’s wall near Abbeydorney, Co Kerry.

She said she painted the sign after her wall was left in smithereens two weeks ago for the second time in as many months.

“I just thought I’m really, really angry so I just painted the sign,” said Valerie. “I was extremely angry. I couldn’t even speak about it the week after the last one happened. I was so upset and depressed at the same time because it keeps happening and I just can’t keep rebuilding.

“It’s been up a few days. Nobody has said anything to me personally.”

She said she worries for own safety and her family’s safety, especially when she has to undertake the task of rebuilding the wall each time it is knocked down.

“When I was building the wall, you have to be careful when you are on the outside,” she said. “If a big lorry or milk tanker is coming down I hop out of the way quick because they can skim you easily.

“It’s very dangerous. My grandchildren live nearby but I don’t let them anywhere near the front of the garden. I think there should definitely be a few signs.”

However, while motorists are slowing down and doing a double take when they see the sign, Valerie does not believe it will stop the culprits from veering into her wall.

“Mostly it’s young drivers who go too fast and they are not going to take any notice at all,” said Valerie. “We do have joyriders at night. You can hear them. It’s a regular occurrence.”

A fed-up cottage-owner has revealed how she was driven to swear in a traffic-stopping sign outside her home after her stone wall was repeatedly smashed by late-night motorists.