Deceased farmer's leased land occupied within 24 hours

One Clare family approached TD Cathal Crowe to highlight the shocking circumstances surrounding their late father’s leased land.

“Their father passed away and he wasn’t even at the funeral home before there were ponies in the field and locks on the gate,” Crowe told the Irish Farmers Journal. “It happened within 24 hours.”

The farmer had leased the land in question for a long period of time and his family, dealing at the time with their grief in losing their father, had not even thought of the land.

The TD confirmed that the landowner was unaware of the unauthorised ponies and locks on the gate.

“This was a very deliberate attempt to frustrate and break the leasehold,” he said, explaining that not having vacant possession of land will cause problems with the sale or leasing of it.

He pointed to local knowledge being essential to the intimidation, noting that the alleged perpetrators of the land occupation, who he claimed were people from Limerick city, who would not know that a farmer in a rural area of Co Clare had died unless they were informed.

A rise in the number of similar incidents in the county has seen farmers put locks on their perimeter field gates as a means of defence, a development he is despondent about.

“They are afraid their land could be interfered with,” he said.