Margie Hanley and Michael Hanley, an estranged Irish couple, are fighting a legal battle in the Family Division of the High Court in London, over a holiday house in rural Ireland.
Margie Hanley, 56, and her husband Michael, 60, have staked claim on a property they jointly own in the village of Cornamona, County Galway.
The hearing in the court began on Monday, and Mr Justice Holman heard both side to know how their marriage came in trouble in recent years.
Mrs Hanley told the court that she currently lives in Wentworth, but life was “much simpler” in Cornamona. She told that she and her husband had lived in the Far East, Europe, and the United States in the past. They had jointly built a house in Cornamona many years back and used to go there for holidays and at Christmas. She also told that generations of her family had lived in Cornamona, and her 92-year-old mother still lives there.
“It’s where I have been all my life – generations of my family,” Mrs Hanley told Mr Justice Holman.
“Life is full circle. It’s where I started out. It’s where I ended.”
“There is one road in and one road out,” she said.
“There is one shop, one pub. The doctor visits once a week.”
Mrs Hanley said Mr Hanley doesn’t really need the house in Cornamona.
She told the judge: “He is just torturing me. He is just punishing me.”
Mr Hanley, however, told the court that he also wants to live in Cornamona and do fishing on a nearby lake. He said he is very much interested in living in the Cornamona house.
“I like to fish,” he said. “I like to walk, I play guitar, I like to cook, I like to read, I like to meditate.”
He denied the charges that he was trying to hurt Mrs Hanley.
The judge also suggested the couple to explore the possibility using the house at different times of the year.
However, Mrs Hanley said: “We are getting divorced. The village isn’t big enough for both of us.”
The hearing will continue in coming days.
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