A 62-year-old nun who was convicted of a breach of planning legislation has been fined €500 and ordered to pay another €500 in legal costs.
Sister Irene Gibson, a Carmelite nun of the Holy Face of Jesus, had established a hermitage near the village of Leap in west Cork.
The district court in Skibbereen was told she has since dismantled the hermitage and moved to another location.
She was given one month to pay the fine and legal costs to Cork County Council.
Sr Irene established the hermitage, which consisted of a two-storey cladded oratory and seven pods or cells, on the site of a former garden centre at Corrin South near the village of Leap.
She was later joined there by Sr Anne Marie Loeman from New Zealand. Both women lived at the site, despite the fact that there was no running water, sewage facilities or electricity there.
Cork County Council received complaints about the unauthorised structures and, when they were not removed, took Sr Irene to court.
She was prosecuted for a breach of planning and agreed to remove the structures.
The court was told that the site has now been cleared, apart from an orange wooden fence that surrounds the property.
Judged James McNulty convicted Sr Irene of the breach of planning. He fined her €500 and ordered her to pay another €500 towards Cork Council’s legal costs. She has one month to pay the fine.
The women are believed to have moved to a 24-acre farm near Dunmanway, for which around €80,000 was raised on a fundraising website.
Both were in court in Skibbereen this morning, where the case was finalised.
A spokesperson for the Carmelite Order in Ireland has said Sr Irene is not a member of its community.
A spokesman for the Bishop of Cork and Ross said she does not belong to any religious community that is in communion with the Catholic Church.
