Wind chimes were 'a deliberate act of cruelty'

on 20/02/2013 00:00:00

Ms McBride, of 40 Villa Park Gardens, Navan Rd, Dublin, told Judge Alison Lindsay in the Circuit Civil Court yesterday that neighbours, Michael and Marian Hanway, who live at No 38, would deliberately hang out several wind chimes at a time.

"It was torture," Ms McBride said.

Barrister Pat O'Brien, for the McBrides, asked Judge Lindsay for maximum damages of €38,000 against the Hanways, who are demanding a similar amount of compensation for bad neighbourliness by the McBrides.

Judge Lindsay has heard allegations by both sets of neighbours that each had been deliberately caused emotional suffering, harassment, and intimidation including assault and trespass.

The Hanways alleged that the McBrides, both in their 80s, kept their home under camera surveillance.

When Breffni Gordon, counsel for the Hanways, told Ms McBride she had ignored letters of mediation from his clients, she told the court: "I will not ever have anything to do with that family."

She said the Hanways, who have alleged a "tyranny of intimidation" against the McBrides, had broken their word in the past and her family had suffered so much at their hands that she did not trust them.

Mr McBride told Mr O'Brien that Mr Hanway was often like "a wild man" and that Mr Hanway had once hosed him down across their garden boundary. He had to get a change of clothing.

He claimed that Mr Hanway would call him "a bollocks" for no apparent reason and that Mr Hanway's son Martin, whom he accused of poisoning grass outside the McBride home, had called him "a bleeding wanker".

Garda Sergeant John Broderick, who is married to one of the McBrides' daughters, said Mr Hanway had complained about him to the Garda Ombudsman Commission, which rejected the complaint.

Edward McBride Jr, a retired garda, said Mr Hanway had called him scum who had been "dragged up".

The McBrides' daughter Maura McBride said she had seen Ms Hanway, on CCTV, shovel a substance across grass outside her parents' home and then brush it in. She had recorded 191 incidents throughout the 13-year dispute.

Another daughter, Kate Tierney, said that, as the years went by, the Hanways "upped the ante" on intimidation.

Daughter Eileen Kelly said that, on one occasion, the sound of music from the Hanway household was "horrendous".

Judge Lindsay has reserved her judgment until Friday.

Both families are claiming damages and restraining injunctions against each other.