Judge tells neighbours to keep off musicians' land
Saturday December 12 2009
SHOOTING parties on an estate run by two millionaire musicians from the band Simply Red should be allowed to hunt in peace, a judge has ordered.
Singer Mick Hucknall and sax player Chris de Margary have locked horns with a neighbour over ownership of the hunting and shooting rights on the remote 33,000-acre Glenmore Estate on the banks of the River Finn in Co Donegal.
They had sought an order prohibiting John Wilde, the former owner of the neighbouring Cloghan Lodge Estate, from hunting on Glenmore and from interfering with their hunting parties.
At Letterkenny Circuit Court yesterday, Judge John O'Hagan granted an order preventing Mr Wilde, or anyone connected with him, from "interfering with, approaching or in any way dissuading" a shooting party belonging to Mr Hucknall and Mr de Margary on the Glenmore Estate.
But the judge stopped short of prohibiting Mr Wilde and his hunting parties from entering Glenmore until such time as the matter went to full hearing in approximately a year's time.
"In other words keep out of each others' hair and get on with it until we get to hear the full action," the judge told both parties.
Barrister Peter Nolan, for the musicians, said his clients had title documents which showed they had purchased the hunting rights on the estate for an estimated €1.3m.
He argued that claims by Mr Wilde, that the former owner of Glenmore, Mr Mackey had given the hunting rights to his father, had no basis in law.
Mr Nolan said that he had sworn affidavit from Mr Mackey disputing that he had given any rights to Mr Wilde.
He also produced a handwritten letter from Mr Mackey to Mr Wilde senior in 1989 withdrawing permission for him to shoot on the Glenmore Estate after Mr Wilde shot a cow.
He told the judge that his clients had a good relationship with the local farmers who owned various amounts of the estate, saying they were happy to have shooting taking place as it reduced vermin.
Judge O'Hagan said that on paper Mr Hucknall and Mr De Margary clearly were the title-holders and the burden to prove otherwise rested with Mr Wilde, who asserted that he had gained prescriptive rights.
- Anita Guidera
Irish Independent
