I’ve nowhere else to go
Pensioner says he’ll go to jail before tearing down his log cabin
A PENSIONER threatened with prison if he refuses to tear down a log cabin on his own land next week has said he is facing homelessness.
Seán Meehan, 65, bought the plot of land five years ago following his divorce and initially lived in a mobile home on the site.
But after a hard winter, Mr Meehan’s doctors told him he could not go on living the way he was so he decided to clad the cabin on his land with timber to make it cosier. His cabin revamp fell foul of planning regulations but Mr Meehan has said he would rather go to prison than tear down the home.
‘If they want to send me to prison, so be it’
Mr Meehan, who is due back in court on April 4, said he was ‘taking a stand’ against Tipperary County Council.
There has been a huge groundswell of support for him since news of his predicament broke, with locals and politicians in Tipperary – where he has lived in New Inn all his life – rallying around him. A solidarity protest march has been organised later this month.
Mr Meehan, who has two dogs and a cat, said: ‘If they want to send me to prison, then so be it. I have to take a stand on this. I didn’t do anything to anybody. Why should I be persecuted in my own country when I was born and reared in this area and now I’m being made homeless?
‘I’m back in court on April 4 and I haven’t taken it down and I’m not going to take it down. I don’t have any other place to go. This is something else.
‘I never did anything to anybody. I tried to make a home for myself at my age and I’m being persecuted for it.’
Mr Meehan’s daughter Karina thanked people for their support on behalf of her father.
She also thanked her dad’s close friend, Keith O’Brien, who has set up an online fundraiser on GoFundMe, as well as other petitions to gather support.
Ms Meehan wrote online: ‘Hi everyone. I’m Seán’s daughter. Dad has asked me to put out a message of thanks to all of you, whether you’ve liked & shared, signed the petition, donated, put the word out there or attended the meeting on Monday night. Thank you so much. Dad is beyond grateful for all the support & very overwhelmed.
‘To Keith O’Brien and those of you who are organising the next steps ye know who ye are. A massive thank you.
‘What a crew the Irish are to get behind & back their own when times get tough.. Amazing,’ Ms Meehan added.
Mr Meehan hopes taking a stand will help change the rules, which he said are affecting a lot of people in a similar situation.
He told Virgin Media News: ‘The judge ruled that he sided with the council. He told me it has to be removed by the 14th of this month. If I take this down, I don’t have anywhere else to go. If I don’t. they’ll send me to Limerick jail but when I get out of Limerick jail I’m going to be in the same situation as before. I just said no, I’m not doing it. I’ll do it for everyone else. I know a lot of people in the exact same position as me.’
Mattie McGrath, Independent TD for Tipperary, raised Mr Meehan’s case in the Dáil this week and hit out at what he described as double standards.
‘How come that hundreds of modular units can be placed on land by the State without planning permission, at Floods Cross in Naas for example, to house refugees, while at the same time the State are forcing a single Irish man who places a modular unit on his own land to provide his own housing needs is being threatened with jail? he asked.
‘Seán has two choices really – make himself homeless or go to jail. Will your Government introduce a statutory instrument for the hundreds and maybe thousands of Seán Meehans who are using modular and log cabins to house themselves in the middle of a savage housing crisis?’
Kieran O’Donnell, Junior Minister for Local Government and Planning, told the Dáil the Government could not get involved in individual planning applications. He said anyone could apply to build structures, adding: ‘It’s up to each individual authority to assess each application on its merits. That message needs to go out.’
‘Never did anything to anybody’