Peter Kay is at the centre of a bitter boundary dispute at the idyllic Tipperary holiday home where he retreats to escape the pressures of fame.
If the 51-year-old comedian loses his battle over a strip of land with a neighbouring farmer, he faces not being able to access his
own driveway.
Kay, whose mother Deirdre hails from Co. Tyrone, has owned the second home – close to Lough Derg in bolthole with wife Susan, 53, and, when they were younger, their sons Charlie, 21, and Finley, 18.
But recently the sense of tranquillity his family enjoy there has been undermined as Kay, estimated to be worth around £35m (€42m), has been drawn into an increasingly fraught legal battle over the land between his and a neighbour’s property.
The row, with farmer Michael Quigley, has escalated so intensely that the Phoenix Nights and Car Share star has been summoned to appear in court this month.
The hearing of Mr Quigley’s case against the couple has been listed to take place on February 18 at Nenagh Civil Court. Mr Quigley, who is in his 50s, declined to discuss the case when approached by The Mail on Sunday last week.
But another neighbour familiar with the situation told us: ‘Peter and Susan have owned their house here for 19 years and have really put down roots.
They use the house as an escape and it’s very isolated so it’s not like we see much of them. They’ve lived right next door to Michael Quigley’s farmland for all that time and not had any issue with each other – until now.
‘But now things have definitely deteriorated, which is why it’s gotten to the stage of a court date being set to resolve their argument.
The amount of land contested is relatively small – it’s just a fraction of the Kays’ whole plot – but part of it is on the driveway that
links their house to the road. If the court ruling goes against them, then in theory the Kays could end up with some access issues to their own property.’
The dispute is understood to centre on a small patch of land which both Kay and the farmer believe they legally own. The Quigleys bought the land, mostly farming fields, in 1976, with Michael taking over the property in 2008 – two years after the Kays bought their relatively modest four-bedroom home, which is now worth around €717,000.
The Kays have made fewer trips to their Tipp getaway in recent years, but in 2018 it was the family’s place of solace after the
comedian abruptly cancelled a live tour due to ‘unforeseen family circumstances’.
Kay told fans he had to ‘put family first’. And he went on to more or less vanish from public life for two years while mostly living in the Tipperary property.
During that time, the star kept out of the spotlight, rarely making visits to local restaurants or pubs. Kay was approached last night
for comment.
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