For immediate release
Date: 29 May 2025
From: Tom Roche, Rhode & Tullamore, Co Offaly
Contact: 086 8049389
Cork University talk abandoned because of Court proceedings for home repossession.
“I recently had to inform Dr Cotter that due to physical and mental pressures associated with my upcoming Court appearance for home repossession on 16 June in Tullamore, that I would have to cancel my planned talk scheduled for Thursday 29 May in UCC.”
A WELL-KNOWN environmental campaigner – who in recent times has campaigned to help distressed mortgage holders – will commence a 24-hour hunger strike and vigil on Sunday 15 June at 11:00am outside The Courthouse, Earl Street, Tullamore.
The event will coincide with court proceedings for possession of Mr Roche’s home. Solicitors representing the ‘vulture fund’ Mars Capital Finance Ireland DAC, will initiate proceedings on Monday 16 June 2025 at 11:00am in The Midlands Regional Court, Tullamore, Co Offaly.
Why a hunger strike? In pre-Christian Ireland, fasting was used as a means of protesting injustice. In more recent times it has been used to raise issues of various concerns to individuals and groups – ‘The death of 10 men in the 1981 [1]hunger strike was to prove a defining moment in the struggle between the Provisional IRA and the British government or, to be more precise, the prime minister, Margaret Thatcher.’
Hunger strikes have played a major role in ending slavery, challenging dictatorships, protecting workers from exploitation, protecting the Earth’s biological diversity, promoting equality for women, opposing racism and many other important societal issues.
In ancient Ireland, going on hunger strike was a form of “distress” called “troscud” (or “fasting”). This practice was socially significant and had legal support as an act of due process and fairness.
The impacts home repossessions are having on families is utterly devastating. One of Ireland’s most senior high court officials, Edmond Honohan said, some banks who were “cheerleaders” of the Celtic Tiger were “reverting to type” and pursuing people to the “bitter end” even when they “had no money”. He went on to say the “new debt set” have “legal rights” but some are made” feel like outlaws.” In the same article Mr Honohan said he had met [2]“several widows of people who had been driven to suicide because of the distress of debt.”
The mental and physical impacts of the distress and trauma mortgage arrears has caused me personally has been enormous. Over the past fifteen years I have exhausted every legal avenue open to me to come to an equitable resolution to my mortgage distress situation. But there has been no genuine attempt or effort by PTSB, iCARE Housing CLG or Mars Capital Finance Ireland DAC to resolve this matter. What is taking place is the anatomical unfolding of a home repossession scandal initiated in the first instance by Permanent TSB (PTSB) – one of the main perpetrators of the banking scandal. Their role in the financial crisis was described by [3]Judge Martin Nolan as “deceitful, dishonest and corrupt”.
In March 2025, I received an invitation to give a talk about my new sustainable development project ECORACE 2030, from Dr Gertrude Cotter – Lecturer in Global Citizenship Education at University College Cork (UCC) and academic coordinator of the [4]Praxis Project. I was to launch my new publication REBUKED – Anatomy of a broken promise during my presentation. REBUKED gives a detailed account of how the system has failed to resolve my mortgage distress issue. Unfortunately, I recently had to inform Dr Cotter that due to physical and mental pressures associated with my upcoming Court appearance on 16 June in Tullamore, that I would have to cancel my planned talk scheduled for Thursday 29 May in UCC.
REBUKED – Anatomy of a broken promise, is available for free download at the following link: https://justforests.ie
ENDS
[1] https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/jun/17/ira-hunger-strike-fleet-street
[2] https://www.theguardian.com/business/ireland-business-blog-with-lisa-ocarroll/2011/may/12/banks-driving-people-suicide
[3]https://www.thejournal.ie/bankers-jailed-financial-crisis-ireland-4082033-Ju n2018/
[4] https://praxisucc.ie/praxis-week-2025-whose-voices-whose-futures/
