The High Court ordered Vincent Kavanagh and Brian McCarthy to be detained indefinitely for contempt after finding they deliberately breached an order barring them from entering a property at 36 Beechwood Park, Carlow. The order allows either man to seek release by returning to court and undertaking to comply.
Ms Justice Egan gave the ex tempore judgment on 2 June 2022. The court adjourned the proceedings to 15 June for review. It did not determine the underlying action.
The injunction, made by Mr Justice Allen on 3 March, restrained the defendants and others acting with them or aware of the order from entering the property pending trial. It also barred filming or recording the plaintiff’s employees or the County Registrar for Carlow near the property and sharing that material. The injunction followed a 2016 Circuit Court possession order, an unsuccessful appeal and delivery of possession to the plaintiff on 17 February 2022. The judgment says Vincent Kavanagh and Madeleine Kavanagh later broke into the property, and Vincent Kavanagh refused to leave. Madeleine Kavanagh had since left and was not involved in this committal application.
The plaintiff sought attachment and committal against Vincent Kavanagh and three other people. On 31 May, gardaí brought four people from the property before the court: Vincent Kavanagh, his son Dylan Kavanagh, McCarthy and Murphy. The court found Vincent Kavanagh knowingly continued to trespass despite opportunities to comply, and that McCarthy knew of the injunction and deliberately breached it. Both refused to give undertakings not to re-enter or otherwise breach the order.
The judge initially proposed committal for all three men found to have breached the order. Murphy agreed on 2 June to give an undertaking not to breach it, which the court accepted. The judge therefore ordered indefinite detention only for Vincent Kavanagh and McCarthy, until they purge their contempt. The judgment leaves open their return to court to give an undertaking.
Dylan Kavanagh gave an oath-bound undertaking not to trespass or otherwise breach the injunction pending trial, which the court accepted. He was not found in contempt in the judgment.