Gardaí have been unable to locate a couple who built a large home in Co Meath 20 years ago in “wilful breach” of planning laws, the High Court heard.
Gardaí told the court on Monday they had been unable to locate Rose and Michael Murray, also known as Chris Murray, on foot of orders for their attachment over alleged breach of their undertakings to offer, by September 2022, vacant possession of their home at Faughan Hill, Bohermeen and facilitate its demolition.
Judge Richard Humphreys had made attachment orders on March 9th, which require gardaí to bring the couple before the court to answer for their alleged noncompliance.
On Monday the judge made further orders to facilitate the council in taking possession of the property, including for gardaí to assist the council.
The orders permitted removal of large steel container trucks blocking access to the property. Having been told of reports of Doberman dogs, the judge directed any other obstacles could also be removed.
Steel containers blocking the entrance to the house in Co Meath. Photograph: Barry Cronin
The orders were made on foot of evidence from the council and from gardaí of their difficulties in accessing the property.
The council later said in a statement the property had been “secured”. Because this is “an ongoing legal matter”, the council said it was unable to comment further.
Due to difficulties serving Michael Murray with court orders, the judge last month permitted the council to serve orders by other means, including attaching them to the chained entrance gates of the property and posting them.
The documents warned the Murrays that if they did not obey the orders, they would be liable to a process, “including imprisonment”, aimed at having them comply with the orders.
The home built without planning permission in Bohermeen, Navan, Co Meath.
Photograph: Barry Cronin
In a sworn statement of March 2nd a council planning enforcement officer said he attended the property three times to seek possession, twice during 2025 and on February 19th last. On all occasions, the gates were locked.
When he attended in September 2025, he pressed both intercoms, identified himself but got no response. He noted a robot lawn motor cutting the grass.
The council is anxious the couple comply with their sworn undertakings and give it the keys to the property, but it brought the attachment motion because it believed they will continue to fail or refuse to comply, he said.
In another sworn statement a summons server said when he went to the property on June 9th 2025, he served documents on Rose Murray who told him her husband was not there or in the vicinity. When he returned on November 21st 2025, a woman who said she was Shauna Murray, adult daughter of the couple, told him her father was abroad. Another summons server said he was told in July 2025 by two adult children of the Murrays that their parents were away.
Michael Murray, a plumber by trade who was raised in the Bohermeen area, was refused permission in June 2006 to build a house on the lands.
The couple, who have three children, proceeded to build a house extending to 588 sq m (6,220 sq ft), substantially larger than that for which the original permission was sought.
The couple has been embroiled in a 20-year legal saga over the house in Co Meath. Photograph: Barry Cronin
A lengthy battle to retain the house, or a smaller version, followed, which included five failed bids for retention permission.
The council initiated a High Court case against the couple in 2007 seeking to have them remove unauthorised development. During those proceedings Rose Murray, a nurse originally from Co Kilkenny, said the family would suffer hardship and the couple might have to leave Ireland and seek work in the UK if the house was demolished.
In May 2017 the Supreme Court upheld High Court orders for them to remove unauthorised development from their land.
After they failed to vacate within a year the council took contempt proceedings, which settled in 2020 on terms including their undertaking to vacate the house by September 2022 to allow the council demolish it.
Three days before they were due to leave, they took a fresh case against the council claiming they had new evidence that invalidated the planning refusals.
In 2024 the High Court granted a council application to strike out their new case as “frivolous, vexatious and an abuse of process”. Their appeal against that decision was dismissed by the Court of Appeal last year.
Judge Senan Allen said, after the 2006 application for planning permission was refused, the couple had “in wilful breach of the planning laws” built a house twice the size.
In a ruling last November the Supreme Court refused to hear the Murrays’ appeal against that decision.