A former Kerry journalist has just released her first book, recounting the year-long and much-publicised stand against eviction taken by a father-of-five back in 2012.
Marisa Reidy, who worked as a news reporter with The Kerryman Newspaper for 17 years until 2016, is the author of Seamus Sherlock – The Fight of My Life, a griping new book which chronicles the 350- day ordeal endured by Seamus Sherlock when threatened with eviction from his West Limerick farm in 2012.
Marisa first met Tipperary man Seamus while working with The Kerryman and covered his story extensively as he stood with his children to protect their farm in Feohanagh for almost a year.
A Truly Humbling Experience
In 2021, as the 10th anniversary of the story beckoned, Seamus approached Marisa to write his book. She says it has been a truly humbling experience to chat in so much more depth with Seamus and recount exactly what he and his family went through for almost a year.
In August 2012, Seamus was left devastated when he was issued with an eviction notice, having fallen behind on mortgage repayments a few years previously.
He had lost the bog he worked following a 2008 EU directive to preserve a number of Irish bogs, resulting in almost 80% of his income being wiped out.
Barricade at Appletown Farm
In a defiant stance against the bank, Seamus erected a barricade at Appletown Farm and for the next 350 days he and his five children were under 24-hour eviction notice.
Seamus and his family made national and international headlines over the course of their stand-off and now, 10 years on from his ordeal and as he prepares to sell Appletown Farm, Seamus shares his account of the toll that took on both himself and his children in this new book.
He documents in stark, heart-breaking detail the fear and mental anguish he suffered for almost 12 months, never knowing if or when he and his children would be evicted.
Support from friends and Strangers
He also talks about the support he received from friends and strangers alike; the abuse he got from others and how he soon discovered that so many other people were in the same desperate financial difficulty.
He recalls how he believed he would die protecting his farm and how he often said goodbye to his children without them even knowing it; and talks for the first time about his own suicidal thoughts during that time.
“I think it’s important, after what we went through at the time – and because it’s the 10-year anniversary – that we put down on paper what really happened.
Giving People Hope
We were the ones inside the barricade, and I was always conscious that I’d like the real story to be told. I didn’t want someone to write it from the outside, looking in. I was inside the gate with the children, and it was important to recall exactly what was happening at the time,” Seamus explained.
“As well as that, I’m also hoping that the book might give people hope.
In the first few months especially, hundreds of people contacted me, totally lost and craving help, and in awful debt.
Making a Wrong Decision
So even if this book helps one person from making a wrong decision late at night, or when the pressure is on, then it will have been worth writing. I’m not saying everyone could do what we did, but if we can give people hope and maybe help people take their heads of out the sand and face their problems, it might be easier for them.”
Speaking Frankly and in Detail
While Seamus has given many interviews to the press during and after his ordeal, this is the first time he has spoken so frankly and in so much detail about what he says was a year of hell on earth.
Seamus Sherlock – The Fight of My Life is now available online via The Book Depository: https://www.bookdepository.com/Seamus-Sherlock-Marisa-Reidy/9781915662231, with several other online platforms such as Amazon, Apple Books, Google Books and Blackwell adding the title in the coming days.
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