{"id":354501,"date":"2026-03-19T15:07:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T15:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/354501\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T15:07:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T15:07:09","slug":"demolition-of-illegally-built-co-meath-home-under-way-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/354501\/","title":{"rendered":"Demolition of illegally-built Co Meath home under way \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The demolition of an illegally-built house<\/a> that has been subject to almost 20 years of legal proceedings has begun.<\/p>\n

Chris and Rose Murray built the 588sq m (6,220sq ft) house at Faughan Hill, Bohermeen, Navan<\/a>, in 2006 despite being refused planning permission by Meath<\/a> County Council.<\/p>\n

The couple mounted five unsuccessful retention bids and three failed appeals to keep the home intact.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Meath County Council<\/a> took possession of the home. <\/p>\n

Chris Murray said his three children, aged between 19 and 24, were having their breakfast on Monday morning when security men arrived with garda\u00ed. He claimed his children were evicted on the spot and all their belongings remained in the house.<\/p>\n

Security teams, with their faces concealed, arrived on site on Thursday morning in a 13-vehicle procession, including vans with CCTV towers. With the family having left the property, CCTV cameras have been erected around the home. <\/p>\n

A number of windows were broken as demolition works began. <\/p>\n

\"SecuritySecurity teams, with their faces concealed, arrived on the site of a Meath home that is to be demolished. Photograph: Hugh Dooley <\/p>\n

It is understood the ESB would be brought on site on Thursday to cut off electricity before demolition.<\/p>\n

Crowds had gathered on Wednesday night outside the house in anticipation that demolition works would start through a private contractor.<\/p>\n

The family gained access to the property late on Wednesday to remove personal belongings after security left the site. <\/p>\n

In a statement, Meath County Council said it, alongside An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na, had \u201cengaged on site with family and community representatives to facilitate the removal of personal belongings and household items, in line with the court\u2019s direction\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Photograph:Photograph: Barry Cronin <\/p>\n

It is understood a deadline of 10.30am on Thursday was given to the Murray family to finish removing their personal effects.<\/p>\n

Neighbours and extended family assisted in the removal of the belongings, with heavy machinery operated by friends seen entering and leaving the property under Garda supervision.<\/p>\n

Meath County Council said it was \u201cacting on foot of High Court orders issued on Monday, March 16th, 2026, and Wednesday, March 18th, 2026, in relation to the property at Faughan Hill, Bohermeen.<\/p>\n

\u201cCourt has directed that the council, with the assistance of An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na, take possession of the property and proceed with demolition in accordance with existing court orders.\u201d<\/p>\n

The council said it \u201cacknowledges the co-operation of those involved in this process\u201d but declined to comment further due to it being an \u201congoing legal matter\u201d.<\/p>\n

Speaking on Thursday, Rose Murray said she feared arrest if she returned to Ireland. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to be arrested at Dublin Airport. I am not a criminal. This is a civil matter, it should have been sorted out 20 years ago.\u201d <\/p>\n

Murray told Newstalk\u2019s Claire Byrne Show that she and her husband knew they had made a mistake.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was too big. We put our hands up 20 years ago to say we\u2019re trying to fix the situation, but there\u2019s no negotiating with them,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Murray said they had two live appeals before the European Court of Human Rights, but in the meantime they would just have to move on with their lives.<\/p>\n

She did not know where they were going to go. <\/p>\n

While Chris Murray said on Wednesday that the family were staying in a bed-and-breakfast in Kells and were now homeless, she told Byrne they were staying with friends.<\/p>\n

When asked if they would go to a B&B, Murray said they would not.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Garda\u00ed unable to locate couple whose Meath home was built without permission, judge toldOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cThe children are not going to go to a B&B in this day and age with all the homeless people, refugees coming into the country. It\u2019s barbaric that you can pay your taxes in this country all your life and then be treated like that and put into a bed-and-breakfast.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said she would not watch the house being demolished. \u201cI\u2019m staying away until the order is lifted for my arrest so that I can actually come into the country.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The demolition of an illegally-built house that has been subject to almost 20 years of legal proceedings has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":354502,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,73,15949,26685,42208,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-354501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-high-court","tag-meath","tag-meath-county-council","tag-navan","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}