Hermit nun fined €500 over unauthorised development in rural Co Cork

A hermit nun has been fined €500 and ordered to pay another €500 in costs after a judge finalised the case against her for setting up a hermitage without planning permission in a rural part of Co Cork.

Sr Irene Gibson was convicted in December 2019 by Judge James McNulty for breaching Section 154 of the Planning and Development Act 2000 when establishing the hermitage at Corrin South in Leap.

Judge McNulty adjourned the case against Sr Gibson, a member of the Carmelite Sisters of the Holy Face of Jesus, on a number of occasions to allow her and her colleague, Sr Annemarie Loeman, to find alternative accommodation.

The Carmelite Sisters of the Holy Face of Jesus are not part of the Carmelite Order in Ireland and the Diocese of Cork and Ross has also stated that the two nuns do not belong to any community connected to the Irish Catholic Church.

The court previously heard that Cork County Council had received complaints in 2016 about the development, which included a wooden chapel, seven sheds or pods and a two-storey building.

The council’s executive planner Philip O’Sullivan told an earlier hearing that Sr Gibson continued building after she was refused planning permission.

“If that continues, we will have anarchy in the planning system,” he said.

The nuns came into that hearing with a statue of the Child of Prague which Judge McNulty asked them to remove, saying while he respected all faiths and the right to venerate, court was not a place for holy statues.

Removed buildings

He on Tuesday told Skibbereen District Court that when the case was last heard in September, the council reported that Sr Gibson had removed a number of pods or sheds from the hermitage. Four pods or sheds remained at that stage along with a storage container and a wooden fence, which breached planning regulations.

Margaret Noelle O’Sullivan, solicitor for the council, said officials from the local authority visited the site on Monday and all that remained was the fence.

The judge was shown photos of the brown fence and said that given it was not “visually offensive nor structurally obtrusive”, he was happy for nature to take its course. If the council was not happy with that approach, he said it could arrange to remove the fence.

Judge McNulty asked Sr Gibson if she was in a position to pay a penalty. She said she had some money in trust in a bank account from benefactors which she and Sr Loeman were using to restore their current dwelling, which was fully compliant with all planning regulations.

Ms O’Sullivan told the court that the minimum penalty for a breach of planning regulations was a fine of €2,500, save for situations where the defendant could show that they did not have the means to pay such a fine.

Judge McNulty, who was told by Sr Gibson that she was in receipt of some State benefits, said he believed the appropriate penalty was €1,000.

Sr Gibson confirmed that she could make such a payment and was fined €500 and ordered her to pay a further €500 towards the council’s costs before July 27th.