An elderly Co Down couple are facing a stark choice between paying a fine of up to £100,000 or demolishing their home.
Séamus and Dolores Mooney, both aged 75, were served with an enforcement order by Newry Mourne and Down District Council in July 2024 after building their hilltop bungalow without planning approval.
The council, which had previously given planning permission for a dwelling before it was quashed by a legal challenge, is now prosecuting the couple for failure to comply with the order.
Mr Mooney, a retired builder and former director of three development companies, has told The Irish News that there is “no prospect” of him demolishing his home.
“Over my dead body will this house be knocked down – it’s our home,” he said.
The property off the Guiness Road in Co Down that was built without planning permission.
The couple’s appearance before Downpatrick Magistrates Court last week was adjourned until June.
They face charges of failing to comply with an enforcement notice, which carries a maximum fine of £100,000.
Their controversial hilltop home has been at the subject of several legal challenges and a Planning Appeals Commission (PAC) hearing.
Mr Mooney received outline planning approval for a house near Drumaroad in 2017, before submitting a reserved matters application in February 2020.
Building work began in summer 2020, before detailed planning permission had been granted. In November that year a reserved matters application was deemed invalid as it proposed a larger dwelling and access from a different road than originally proposed.
A full application for the larger dwelling that was already partially completed was submitted in November 2020. It was approved by the council in December 2023.
Séamus Mooney
However, the approval was quashed by the High Court February 2024 after the Guiness Road Residents Group successfully sought a judicial review of the council’s decision.
The application was returned to the council for redetermination but was refused in June 2024 on the basis that “dwellings or development opportunities had been sold off the farm holding within 10 years of the date of the application”. An enforcement notice was issued the following month.
Mr Mooney took his case to the PAC, which in March 2025 dismissed his appeal.
In his conclusion, Commissioner Gareth Kerr said Mr Mooney’s house “fails to satisfactorily integrate into the surrounding landscape and is harmful to the rural character of the area and the visual amenity and special character of the Mournes and Slieve Croob AONB”.
The property off the Guiness Road in Co Down that was built without planning permission.
Elsewhere in his report, the commissioner described the dwelling as “an incongruous feature on an otherwise upland rural landscape”.
“The dwelling is a prominent feature in the landscape in various views from a distance of around 700m away,” he said.
“It again appears to sit on the skyline high up on the mountainside and has no sense of enclosure or backdrop.”
A statement from Newry Mourne and Down District Council said: “As the matter remains part of the formal planning process, the council’s position remains unchanged and it will not be providing further comment while the process is ongoing.”