The High Court has permanently restrained Liam Gorman from occupying or extracting peat from most of the Garrymore Bog lands in County Laois after finding that Bord na Móna Biomass Limited owned the property and that he was trespassing.
Mr Justice Oisín Quinn delivered judgment on June 24, 2025 following a two-day hearing. Gorman, a digger driver from Silverwood, Mountmellick, disputed the company's ownership and claimed that he owned Plot 570, including by adverse possession.
Bord na Móna Biomass said its title derived from a combination of acquisitions and a compulsory acquisition process completed in January 1981. The court heard evidence tracing Plot 570 through Bord na Móna and successor companies to the present plaintiff.
The judge accepted evidence that Plot 570 had been acquired by compulsory acquisition on January 9, 1981 and that Bord na Móna had remained in continuous occupation of the Garrymore lands. Evidence was given of peat extraction, environmental works and regular site inspections extending over many years.
The first reported unauthorised activity occurred around late December 2023 or early January 2024. The court heard that Gorman had placed a sign asserting "Common Law Jurisdiction" and warning of a €100,000-per-minute charge for incursions. By April 2025, despite existing court orders, he said he had returned to the land, placed a caravan there and was extracting peat for sale to farmers as cattle bedding.
Gorman also argued that the High Court was not lawfully constituted. The judge rejected that jurisdictional argument by applying an earlier Court of Appeal decision. Gorman then left the hearing and did not call evidence.
The court found no credible basis for his claimed ownership or adverse possession of Plot 570. It also found that Bord na Móna Biomass owned the other scheduled plots, except Plot 572A, where title had not been clearly established.
Permanent injunctions will prevent Gorman and anyone acting for him from entering the covered lands, bringing machinery or a caravan onto them, interfering with the company's use or removing peat or other material. No damages were awarded because the company called no evidence to support that part of its claim.