Lissadell case judgment reserved

The High Court has reserved judgment on the long-running legal row over whether public rights of way exists across the historic Lissadell estate in Co Sligo, former home of the State’s first female government minister, Countess Constance Markievicz.

The legal costs of the 58-day action, which opened last October, could be as high as € million, legal sources suggested today.

Mr Justice Bryan McMahon heard final legal submissions today in the case after which he reserved judgment.

The dispute is one of the most protracted legal actions to have come before the High Court, involving a total of 52 witnesses and 8,000 pages of transcripts.

The proceedings were brought against Sligo County Council by barristers Constance Cassidy SC and Edward Walsh SC, who bought the 410-acre estate in 2003 for €4 million and have spent some €9.5 million restoring it.

Evidence was given the State stepped back from purchasing the property after former Minister Martin Cullen said restoration work would have cost about €30m.

The couple, of Morristown, Lattin, Naas, Co Kildare and Lissadell, Ballinafull, Co Sligo, have sought declarations that four routes through the estate are not subject to any public rights of way.

The council deny the claims and want a declaration the four routes are subject to a right of way in favour of the public.

The case was initiated after the council passed a resolution in December 2008 to amend the Sligo County Development plan to include a provision for the "preservation of the public rights of way" along certain routes at Lissadell.

The council claim no decision to commence the formal process of amending the plan has been made and said it had assured the owners it had not determined that public rights of way exist over the lands.

The owners claim opening the routes to the public would mean they could not operate the estate as a tourist attraction.

As a result of the council's resolution, the owners closed Lissadell House, the former home of the Gore Booth family, to the public in January 2009.

The Gore Booth family owned the Lissadell Estate, which originally consisted of some 32,000 acres, for more than 400 years. Frequent visitors to the estate included the poet WB Yeats and the painter Jack Yeats.