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A NUMBER OF activist groups who have come together to protect a family home against repossession in Kanturk, county Cork have vowed to keep resistance on the ground for as long as it takes.
The O’Sullivan family saw about 100 family, friends and activists rally to ensure the local sheriff “backed off” yesterday as she tried to enforce a High Court order.
Martin and Claire O’Sullivan, along with their three children who are all under the age of 9, face eviction from their property in Ashdale, Dun an Oir despite offers to meet up to 50 per cent of monthly repayments to their subprime mortgage lender.
A group of about 50 people have gathered at the house this afternoon as there are fears the sheriff will return today to enforce the repossession order.
“More people are coming as well,” said spokesperson for the Anti-Eviction Taskforce Denis O’Brien, who noted that a local garda superintendent had visited the site earlier.
The garda press office told TheJournal.ie that the visit was to ensure public order.
The O’Sullivans found themselves in mortgage arrears difficulties after Martin’s plumbing business felt the effects of the recession.
The 35-year-old was self-employed when he put down a deposit of €110,000 on the house in 2007. At the same time, he took out a mortgage loan of €150,000 from Permanent TSB. When his business started to falter, the family remortgaged the property with Start Mortgages.
They had offered to pay up to €400 per month to the lender but a High Court repossession order was obtained without challenge. The family did not send a representative to court as they could not afford the legal fees.
They received a letter from the county sheriff earlier this month to advise them of the imminent eviction.
Another anti-austerity group, Independent Resistance Ireland, has pledged to make legal expertise available to the O’Sullivans.
“Those of us who are acting voluntarily on their behalf have a certain amount of legal expertise – we are determined to contest and appeal the repossession order,” spokesperson Colmán Etchingham told TheJournal.ie.
“That old saying – possession is nine tenths of the law. There are options – people should not be intimidated,” he added.
The groups, who are operating a rota system, say they will keep people on the ground at Ashdale and are confident they will be successful in stopping the repossession.
Reports earlier indicated that protesters were told that their phones would be confiscated if they were taking videos of an eviction. Gardaí clarified that mobile phones can be seized if they are used in the filming of an arrest for evidence.
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The media has a a vitally important democratic function to perform in making Trump and his current administration fully visible.
Media exposure will highlight what Trump is about.
@Johnny Leddin: only Trump worries about thumbs. It is his downfall.
@Tony Daly: like they did with clinton…right…
The media should be treated with contempt!
What do reporters think the new administration is playing at?…to me it seems like some sort of Bond plot where the obvious is a diversion to what is really going on…there are bigger things cooking in the background which they don’t want us to know about.
@winston smith: the focus is on Trump’s temperament at the moment and the increasing realisation that Trump is temperamentally unsuitable to be President of the US.
@Tony Daly: is that a fact or just your anti trump opinion….
Trump won because of a fawning uncritical ratings-driven media which gave him billions in free publicity.
@Were Jammin: he won because hillary took her eye of the ball and wouldn’t listen to the fears many people have in the US regarding immigration..she just called them all deplorables. That is a fact
@Were Jammin: he won because hillary took her eye of the ball and wouldn’t listen to the fears many people have in the US regarding immigration..she just called them all deplorables. That is a fact
@Were Jammin: Trump won because the media were uncritical of him – are you on drugs?
The media is ‘temperamentally unsuitable’ to cover the White House.
What’s most fascinating about this article is the constant use of “said one reporter” for even the most mundane observation. Did The Journal not get their names, or did the reporters insist on strict anonymity for reasons beyond my ken; or, more troublingly, does The Journal imagine itself a Player in DC political media who needs to keep their “sources” secret lest Trump’s team read this article?
The Media is frantically trying to do an about-face. From the time “President” nominated, they fawned over him because he gave them lots of meat and potatoes, encouraged by Murdoch, Kochs etc… Then, against all the pundits and odds, he became POTUS. 60+ days in, and the media are looking at themselves in horror, that they facilitated this Con Man get the Oval Office. Now, they’re falling over themselves to get him and his misbegotten, incompetent hangers-on out. There is enough blame to go around, so the media have now to start doing things right.
Surprised the Journal was allowed in.
You cannot hope to bribe or twist – thank God! – the average journalist…
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