Locals up in arms at woman continually blasting ‘sexual’ noises as mourners visit cemetery

This week, the nation has been gripped with the tale that gardaí are investigating reports of ‘noises of a sexual nature’ being played on a loudspeaker near a quiet rural Waterford church.

Locals in the close-knit area of Kilgobnet, near Dungarvan, have said they are disgusted by the situation which has escalated from loud music being played through a speaker during services, to a looped recording of a woman repeatedly saying ‘w**ker’ .

“Not only are people planning burials, but they’re also having to plan to have the Guards on site,” said local woman Ailish Hickey.

Another local, John McCarthy, said the situation was going on for years but he became irate when the ‘w**ker’ recording was blasted loudly as he visited his dad’s grave on Father’s Day.

“It’s crazy behaviour. It started off with the radio blaring loud when funerals and weddings were on. Then ‘w**ker’ started off lowly. I stopped going to the grave for a little while, then I went on Father’s Day and it was really loud,” said Mr McCarthy.

The sounds are coming from a speaker outside a house, which is located right beside an entrance to the graveyard and church.

The Sunday World called to the house, which has multiple CCTV cameras, this week and a radio station was being played through the outdoor speaker.

Our reporter had hoped to speak to the owner of the house, believed to be a woman aged in her 40s who previously lived in Northern Ireland, but nobody answered despite the music playing and a dog barking inside the house.

A sticker in a car outside the property with the title “Practical Lawful Dissent” refers to the Magna Carta and says “I do NOT consent to unlawful laws imposed by unlawful government. I must be allowed travel freely without hindrance”.

Another notice in the window of the house also refers to the Magna Carta, stating “treason being committed in parliament”.

The property is situated on a public road – but it is understood the owner of the house is unhappy with people using the thoroughfare and had tried to have bollards erected in the area.

Mr McCarthy said the road leads to a gate which is particularly convenient for elderly people or people with mobility issues.

“I’ve had a broken ankle and had chronic pain so couldn’t walk and I used that lane and drove right up to the gate. My father’s grave is the second grave in.

“My father is gone a few years. I hadn’t been up in a while and it was Father’s Day – I went up to the grave but it was that loud (the speaker), you couldn’t hear your thoughts

“There’s a beautiful view of the bay of Dungarvan and he always loved views, and I say to him when I’m up there that ‘you have the best view in the house now’. It ruins it.”

Locals say that music was playing from the house during the recent funeral service of a young child who died in tragic circumstances.

Ms Hickey said people in the area are fed up of what is happening and added that gardaí have been present at funerals to monitor the situation.

“There was at least three guards here and a squad car parked outside our house just to ensure she doesn’t play anything too loud or anything explicit [at a recent funeral].

Ms Hickey said she could hear music playing while she was in the graveyard but it wasn’t as loud as the “w**ker” recording.

She said people going to a funeral shouldn’t have to put up with what is happening.

“You’re going through the worst time of your life and you have to think, ‘God, I have to ring the Guards to be here just to make sure she doesn’t play her music’.

“You shouldn’t have to think like that.”

Ms Hickey added that a vehicle was previously parked blocking the road the night before a funeral and gardaí were called.

“We got the number and the Guards towed away the car that night, but when the Guards called up she wouldn’t answer the door,” she said.

Local Sinn Féin councillor Conor McGuinness has contacted the council and local gardaí about the noise situation and officers said they would investigate the matter.

“Everybody has a right to attend their place of worship, bury their loved ones, and visit their relatives’ graves, and to do so in peace, not to feel harassed or intimidated,” Mr McGuinness said.

“It’s a really quiet area and rural community, there are generations of people buried here. Everybody in the area has family laid to rest here and for people not to be able to come here and visit the graves and services in peace is just not right.”

He said it was very clear from the ‘w**ker’ recording that what was happening was deliberately meant to offend.

“It has become really clear since that incident that it is being done on purpose to be as disruptive as offensive and disrespectful as possible. There is no excusing it now or explaining it away.

“It is as anti-social as you can get, to disturb people and try and prevent them accessing their place of worship or access graveyards

“If there is no power for the Guards or local authority to intervene then there should be.

“People shouldn’t be allowed hold a community to hostage. People shouldn’t be allowed to repeatedly cause real hurt and offence to people. That needs to be addressed.”

He said people are entitled to use the road.

“It’ a public road and people can come up here and she has no right to stop them.”

The woman who owns the house bought it several years ago and re-opened it as a pub.

Locals said they were happy to see the pub reopened and the owner told them she had plans to expand it.

“You’d only fit 10 people in there. She talked about doing an outdoor area,” said Ms Hickey. “We were excited.”

However, those plans never materialised and she later closed the pub.

Mr McCarthy said: “She had a pub going but she fell out with everyone and barred them out of the pub, so that’s not open anymore.”

While the pub is currently closed the owner still holds a licence for it according to the licensing register.

Locals say they rarely see the owner out in public.

“We never see her. I couldn’t tell you the last time I saw her. You never really saw her anyway. She kind of kept to herself in the end.”

Mr McCarthy added: “What she is doing is crazy. I would be ashamed to show my face in public.

“I would be mortified.”