‘Nothing wrong’ with ‘dilapidated’ home

January 2001

A Taghmon bachelor, whose home has been described as ‘a famine-time hovel’, says he has no desire to leave his rural cottage and move to a newer dwelling.

Over the weekend, the ‘dilapidated’ condition of Val Kelly’s home, midway between Foulksmills and Taghmon, hit the national headlines, with Sinn Féin Councillor John Dwyer describing the homestead as ‘one of the worst’ he had ever seen.

In an ‘Ireland on Sunday’ report, the home of the 78-year-old pensioner was portrayed as a ‘ living hell’, without running water, electricity, or proper heating.

But despite such high-profile coverage, Val Kelly, who lives on secluded roadway in the townsland of Tottenham Green, told this newspaper he has no desire to leave his home.

Speaking on Tuesday, Mr Kelly said ‘I wouldn’t go into a new house in Taghmon if I won the lottery twice every day. I am 78 and I have been living here all my life and I have the greatest of neighbours. I think the conditions are all right.’

Wexford County Council received a report last week about Mr Kelly’s situation, and inspectors have called to the farmstead.

But local councillors Jimmy Curtis and Paddy Codd, both of whom live within a few miles of Mr Kelly’s residence, said they had not been approached about his situation.

‘Val has his own way about things. I think Cllr Dwyer is using this opportunity just to promote his own politics,’ said Cllr Curtis.

Cllr Dwyer says he has displayed a proactive rather than a reactive approach to an ‘appalling’ situation. ‘I am shocked and appalled by politicians ducking for cover when something dreadful is exposed. At no stage did I try to take political advantage of it,’ he said.

‘ There is a shocking level of rural poverty in this county and there is no point in pretending it doesn’t exist,’ he added.