Olivia Kelleher
Cork City Council has been granted an injunction preventing a couple from re-erecting a marquee previously put up in Mahon on the southside of the city for a wedding reception due to take place tomorrow.
The local authority made a successful application for an injunction against James and Julia Keenan of Meelagh Housing Scheme in Cork.
The court heard that the couple had erected a marquee in a vacant bay near their home for a wedding reception for their son, who plans to marry his fiancée in Shannon, Co Clare tomorrow.
Barrister for the Council Meg Burke told Cork Circuit Civil Court that the marquee was erected on Wednesday but has since been taken down.
She said the family had planned to hold a wedding reception with 40 guests at the site in Meelagh in Mahon tomorrow. However, current Covid restrictions only allow for 15 people to attend an outdoor festivity of this kind.
Judge Sean O'Donnabhain asked Ms Burke if the Council was happy with an undertaking from the family not to re-erect the marquee. The family voluntarily took the marquee down last night.
Judge O'Donnabhain asked if "it (the marquee) could go up and quickly as it came down" and the Council responded that a court ruling was needed on the matter.
Initially refused
Miss Burke stated that a housing officer from the local authority had spoken to James Keenan about the marquee and that he had initially refused to take it down saying that he had spent a lot of money on the wedding reception for his son. Mr Keenan told the Council that the marquee was primarily for the family of the groom and the bride herself.
The marquee, which was supplied by an unnamed company in Tipperary, was subsequently taken down voluntarily by the family.
Miss Burke told the court that the family lived at 7 Meelagh and that the marquee had been erected at a vacant bay at 3 Meelagh in the halting site in Mahon on the southside of the city.
She said that the concern of the council was that extended family members of the defendants were involved in an escalating feud in the city. She stated that a shot was recently fired in an area in Mahon near the site of the proposed marquee.
However, Miss Burke stressed that she was in no way suggesting that the defendants were involved in the feud.
Injunction granted
Judge O'Donnabhain granted the injunction against the defendants who have been informed that if they re-erect the marquee for the wedding that the local authority will have the power to take it down.
Judge O'Donnabhain said that the plaintiff was "at liberty to enter the site and remove it (a marquee)" if it is re erected.
Miss Burke also expressed concern about a wedding reception being held at the site without the presence of a marquee.
However, Judge O'Donnabhain said that the policing of such an event if it occurred would be a matter for An Garda Siochana.
He added that it was their responsibility to enforce public health regulations should a reception go ahead.
The judge reserved a decision on costs on the case until next Monday.
Neither of the defendants were present in court and the injunction was granted on an ex-parte basis.
