Elderly tenants refuse to move

Well if it’s not the Palaskenry standoff, now it looks like a new standoff is underway but this time it’s about a woman trying to hold onto a dilapidated house.

77-year-old Bertha Cleary has been living in a house in Byrne Avenue, Prospect all her life. However possession of the house had been granted to Limerick City Council at the district court for breach of the tenancy agreement, in other words she hasn’t paid rent.

Mrs. Cleary had a stroke recently so a friend Brendan Harte, a retired soldier, moved in to help her out.

On Tuesday the Sheriff arrived with members of the Gardai to evict the two but when they arrived they were met by angry local neighbors who formed a barricade preventing the Sheriff from entering the premises.

Mrs Cleary spoke after the drama saying, “I didn’t know what was happening. The sheriff was there telling me I had to leave my house. He took my front door key. I have always lived here. My parents lived here. I don’t know who they were or where they were from. They told me I had to go to the health centre on Clare Street and I could stay there. Why do they want to throw me out of my home?”

Brendan Harte said, “The house might not be in good condition but it is her home as far as she is concerned. I live with her now as she finds it hard to get by and she never received any notice or anything. They came around and took away the key to the front door and told us to leave, but we won’t. Where can we go?”

So the two elderly rebels hold on to there pit for another while. Below is the Photo from the Limerick Leader.The story is even making the national papers