Kennyscourt Stud in the heart of the Kildare Plains has been in the news again. In the last twenty or so years the Stud, owned and developed by the McDermott family (primarily dad Eugene) has bred and trained many winners, but of late the news has not been celebratory in tone. Recent headlines in the broadsheets have reported how anti-eviction activist Mr Ben Gilroy was brought before the courts in a show trial, charged with contempt of a Court Order. The Court Order in question forbade anyone interfering with receivers who had been sent in by IBRC to seize the McDermott family Stud, effectively shutting down an internationally recognised equestrian centre. With all the hullabaloo around the Gilroy case, the McDermott family and their story seems to have been sidelined. It may be the case that when some people hear of a horse “Stud” they assume the owners are landed gentry and that they didn’t work hard for what they have. Harsher and less informed commentators might even suggest a certain rough justice in that someone who appeared to be a “has” is now a “has not”.
Scratch lightly the surface of the McDermott family story and a very different narrative becomes plain to see. I contacted Eugene McDermott after the Gilroy contempt case to see if he would like to meet me with the intention of putting on paper the family’s experiences over the last few years. Eugene was at first hesitant, keenly aware of the stress already suffered by his family, but with some supportive words he finally agreed to meeting at the family home on a bright early Summer morning.
Image below: Protesters "retake" the stud from the Receiver...
The drive up to Eugene’s reminded me of Pippa’s trek up to the abandoned stately home of Ms Havisham in Dickens’s Great Expectations. It wouldn’t be true to say the family home is stately or the Stud itself dilapidated, Eugene and his young sons make sure of that. There is however a desolation in the air, a sense that this place was once thriving and bustling with activity, but is now shrouded in silence, inactivity and memories of better, happier days. Eugene and his boys met me at the door and I was brought into the heart of the family home, the kitchen. The boys made sandwiches and tea for us as Eugene began telling the story of Kennyscourt. The boys worked away in silence with their ears turned to their father’s voice and listening, possibly for the first time, to their own story and family history.
The McDermott family came into the ownership of Kennyscourt Stud in the 1920s when it was part of an Estate, a relic of the colonial age. Eugene’s Grandfather (also Eugene), the boy’s great-grandfather, was born into a tumultuous Ireland in the first decade of the twentieth century. The Mc Dermotts were typical working class Irish in a land dominated by British colonial policy and where the landed gentry owned many of the farms or Estates. A young Eugene senior was determined to better his own circumstances and that of his family. As a boy he rode by bicycle the arduous journey from the plains of Kildare to Dublin where he trained as an apprentice butcher. I can’t imagine on those cycle rides up and down the steep hills to and from Dublin that the young Eugene senior ever thought that he would be one of the first Irish of the new Republic to break the link between the landed gentry and the land.
Eugene Senior qualified as a butcher and soon had his own thriving butcher’s shop in Dublin. It wasn’t long before he set to thinking about supplying his own meat rather than buying it in. Overtime, and with hard work and determination, Eugene Senior bought what is now known as Kennyscourt Stud. The poor mountain boy had defeated the odds .The Mc Dermotts worked the farm and made it productive and the surrounding community prospered. Eugene junior recalls during the 1960s, 70s, and 80s how his own mother and father brought economically deprived kids from the inner city to stay on the farm for respite, clean air and good food.
In the 1980s Eugene, the grandson and kitchen table narrator, travelled to Australia where he developed a keen interest in all things equestrian. He soon realised he had hidden talents. He learned the art of training racing horses, and when he returned to Ireland in 1989, having earned a name for himself in Australia as a trainer, he set about transforming the farm into a Stud. By this time farming had become an unprofitable business. Eugene’s desires to convert the farm into an equestrian centre were not profit motivated, but rather were the manifestation of a vision of Kennyscourt as a world leader in horse breeding and training. The family trait of hard work and determination soon paid off and Eugene developed one of the best studs in the country, but fortunes were to change.
As the Celtic tiger began to roar Eugene found the costs of further development of the stud growing. He borrowed from IBRC to improve Kennyscourt and soon found himself being courted regularly by the bank’s marketing team who often called unsolicited and at one stage even tried to convince Eugene to buy a helicopter, an offer Eugene wisely refused. Nevertheless, in spite of growing investment costs, the efforts seemed to be paying off and the stud was gaining an international reputation for excellence. Like so many Irish businesses however, the banking crash in 2008 and the economic downward spiral that followed resulted in a build up of arrears on the Studs books, payments were not coming in and this meant credit repayment facilities were not being fully met, although Eugene continued to pay as much as he could. He thought the bank was happy with his efforts and that although the present may be overcast, that the future was still bright.
Eugene arrived home one evening in the summer of 2011 to find that Anglo had sent in the receivers to seize the stud and his family home, in essence to steal his very being. The boys and Eugene’s wife were traumatised by the incident. Mark Reynolds, the receiver, had barricaded the lands, outbuildings and access to the family home and did so without any prior warning. Eugene described how Reynolds proudly marched around the stud, chest sticking out, as though he had personally acquired the McDermott family business and home. Eugene was distraught and called the Gardaí but to no avail.
Over the coming days and weeks the receiver did his best to make life impossible for Eugene and his family. He blocked up front gate access making it a challenge for the family to come and go as they wished. The oil used to heat the home was intentionally leaked out and onto the land. In essence the receiver attempted to cut the family off from society in the hope they would give up their home.
Under such immense pressure Eugene eventually cracked. He suffered a nervous breakdown and spent six weeks in St. John of Gods. Eugene’s stay in the mental health facility brought him into contact with others who had similar experiences. It was the first time he realised he was not alone in his battle to save his home and dignity. With help from his family who felt he would be better at home, Eugene returned to Kennyscourt Stud and his only true support system. His stay in St. John of Gods had meant he hadn’t seen at first hand the effects the receiver’s actions were having on his youngest sons. They were having nightly night mares and began to self-isolate in the wider community. But what could they do? Where could they go? Life was soon to become even more unbearable at the hands of the receiver. He placed security cameras all over the stud watching the family’s every move. Security guards watched the family home day and night. It was at this stage Eugene decided to start to fight back against Anglo (IBRC).
Eugene brought the receivers and the bank to court. The Judge ruled that the McDermott family could remain in the family home but that the receiver could remain on the lands. Since the court case the receiver has toned down his outrageous and some may say inhuman behaviour. The family continue to live under siege however. The outbuildings remain blocked off and of no use to anyone. A once thriving business with a live client list and great potential into the future has been crashed by the receivers. Jobs have been lost, a family broken and for what?
Recently in an attempt to save the stud, Eugene placed it into the Charlie Allen Family Trust. It is understood the courts have refused to acknowledge the protections of this Trust. In response up to 400 citizens gathered on the stud in the Summer of 2013 to put the receiver to the road, which they did. In response, the aforementioned contempt case against Ben Gilroy was initiated and the McDermott family story has become lost in the dramas of court.
Conclusions
And so the story of Kennyscourt and the McDermott family reaches full circle and conclusion. Eugene and family struggle on in a home that is forcibly cut off by a receiver employed by the state. One of the finest stud farms in Ireland is reduced to hosting a handful of cattle placed by the receiver to make the lands look used. A family has been disassembled by the system, but has been re-assembled stronger and more resilient through love for each other.
The lessons to be taken from the McDermott family story can help to challenge some of the obstacles to national unity existing in Ireland today. The notion of rough justice for those who grew businesses during the “Celtic Tiger” can be seen as puerile, bitter and lacking context when seen through the eyes of the McDermott family and so many others in their shoes. Suddenly the indebted family living in a 3-bed semi in suburbia doesn’t look so different to those living in larger houses in rural areas. The fears of the family of the fallen business person are revealed to be as deep and powerful as any others.
As I left the McDermott home that afternoon I had mixed feelings. I admired their strength, their willingness to defend their family history and their pride. Looking around the once thriving stud however, I also took with me a melancholy, a certain sadness often felt by those who are witness to battles involving the smaller man facing down powerful forces. Eugene and I parted with the promise that all going well I will return in six months to write an update. I do hope that this is a promise we can keep.
No comments:
Post a Comment