A Roscommon couple’s bid to impose a 100m sterilised zone for pesticides and slurry on three neighbouring farmers has been dismissed by the Court of Appeal.

Plaintiffs Marlena Aurich and Scott Manning live at Hall Cottage, Kiltybanks, County Roscommon, a property standing on an acre of land. Farmers Michael Conway, Patrick Duffy and Patrick McCann all have farmland adjacent to the property.

The plaintiffs held that their health, and that of their daughter, had been compromised by the use of pesticide and slurry by the three farmers, and that two family pets had died by poisoning from the same sources.

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The farmers were “endangering our lives and cause bodily harm in form of personal injuries” by “maliciously administering poisons” the plaintiffs, who represented themselves in the case heard in the High Court in May 2025, maintained.

Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine official James Caplis and Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon were joined to the action, for “allowing and enabling an uncontrolled and unlimited use of pesticides, when this causes personal injury and property damage”. Marlena Aurich “described that she had suffered severe pesticide poisoning from November 2019 to February 2020 and that she had attended Castlebar hospital in February 2020 and undergone a number of tests” the High Court judgment said.

It added that “her conclusion that she had suffered severe and life-threatening pesticide poisoning was not supported by the hospital doctor, the respiratory clinic,or her GP.”

In his judgment, judge Senan Allen upheld the High Court’s ruling.

It had earlier found that “the plaintiffs had failed to establish that there was any even arguable causative link between these defendants’ activities – which were admitted – and the plaintiffs’ and their daughter’s medical complaints which, for the purposes of the interlocutory application, were accepted.”

The appeal was opposed by Michael Conroy, who was awarded his costs from the appeal.