A 51-year-old Sligo man has successfully claimed legal ownership of a portion of land on the former Mountbatten estate of Classibawn. Hugh Tunney, current owner of the estate at Mullaghmore County Sligo had claimed that he owned the land, but carpenter John Meehan won his claim for legal and beneficial ownership at Sligo Circuit Court this afternoon.
Judge Bryan McMahon heard that the portion of land, which amounts to about a third of an acre, had been used by generations of the Meehan family until Mr Tunney asserted his rights to it in 1998. Mr Tunney said that he understood that the land was part of the Mountbatten estate which he first became involved with in 1976 when he leased Classibawn Castle and its surrounding lands.
The court heard that Mr Meehan took his action after he was summoned before the District Court in October 2000 for the alleged larceny of wood from the disputed land. Those proceedings were adjourned, pending the outcome of today's case. However, Judge McMahon said that Mr Tunney's conduct in entering and clearing the disputed land, before ownership was definitively determined, was high-handed.
Summing up his judgement, Judge McMahon said that he thought the appropriate order in the circumstances was that Mr Meehan was the legal and beneficial owner of the land. He also awarded Mr Meehan £5000 damages for trespass and costs. A second case is continuing in which Sligo County Council is challenging Mr Tunney's felling of trees on the Classibawn estate. The council has sought an injunction to restrain Mr Tunney from cutting down any further trees on the estate.
