Carlingford residents' "nightmarish" ordeal living beside party rentals
The North Louth village has become known as the "hen and stag party capital of Ireland"
A Carlingford woman has shared her “nightmarish” experience of living next door to rented accommodation which caters for hen and stag parties over the last few years. The Louth woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, revealed exclusively to the Dundalk Democrat that she had even been threatened by landlords who owned rented properties in her estate when she sought assistance from the Gardai and Louth County Council to try and resolve the problem.
The Louth woman who has been living in the Carlingford estate since she bought her house ten years ago, explained:
“We've been living in this area for 10 years now. In the last two years, people have moved away. They just couldn't stick it. It wasn't a place they wanted their kids growing up in.
An aerial shot of Carlingford
“The people causing the trouble were generally staying in short-term lets in large groups. Mainly hens, but sometimes stags.
“Multiple houses in the family estate we live in have been let out for this purpose. There have been very large groups staying this summer. Carlingford has had a reputation as a party town for a while now but it's gotten really out of control this year. It's being marketed by a number of businesses in the village as the hen and stag capital of Ireland. It's been like living in a nightmare. We're seeing at least 30 hen and stag parties in this small village every weekend.
“But it's difficult when you are trying to put the kids to bed. I have knocked in next door a few times and they have been good and quietened down for a bit, but it's been relentless. During the night the parties continue when people come back from the pubs at around 2 and 3am. You see strippers heading into the houses and the noise would go on until 5am.
“Sometimes we'd come home and there'd be three rows of cars parked outside and you couldn't get into the housing estate. The floors would be banging all night from people dancing. It wasn't just our house next door that you could hear the banging from, you could hear it from about 100 metres away, it got that noisy.”
And it wasn't just the noise that was a kept the family awake – fire safety concerns also left the couple worrying about the partygoers and their own safety. The woman added:
A stock image
“This was going on for Friday nights for four months solid last summer. On several occasions, I rang the guards. Sometimes they couldn't make it out. When they did they didn't know how to handle the situation as it was an ongoing problem. We couldn't just report a noise complaint to the council as it was different people staying in the houses every weekend.”
The stressed-out mum added that things got so bad the situation started to have an effect on her mental health: “We [the woman and her husband] couldn't get any sleep through all of this. We were getting an average of one to two hours sleep on a weekend. The hen parties would be jumping on our kids' toys. Carlingford was turning into a place where you wouldn't want to raise your kids.
“It got to the point where we were going to either have a nervous breakdown, move house, or try to tackle the problem. This was not what we signed up for!”
But selling up wasn't an option for the Louth family as they were worried that the value of their house had gone down due to Carlingford's reputation as a “party town”.
The source added: “We were really worried that the house was unsellable. With the reputation of Carlingford as a party town, the price of our house had devalued. And I thought even if we did sell the house, a landlord who wanted to rent it out for hen and stag parties would probably buy it and that would just make the situation worse again for people living in the area.”
In a statement to the Democrat, Louth County Council said: “The Planning Department has received a number of complaints in relation to short-term lettings in [the estate in question] which are currently being investigated in the context of the Planning and Development Act, 2000 (as amended).”
The Carlingford mum says it's all driven by money but asks “at what cost?” She said: “This industry of short-term rentals in Carlingford is driven by money. It started off during the recession, people bought up investment properties. It was highly lucrative. But the problems these type of rentals can cause for people were not taken into consideration. I spoke to the landlord and that didn't resolve it.”
When asked what she would say to the landlords who continue to rent out these homes to hen and stag parties in residential neighborhoods the Louth woman said:
“If they had to walk in my shoes or sleep in my house, they might think twice about it. I wouldn't dream of renting a house to large groups of people if other people's lives, and mental health, are affected by it. Is it really a business if it causes this much disruption? It's not a sustainable business.”
The Carlingford resident also expressed concern that the problem had spread further than the village. She said:
Much of the rowdiness in Carlingford is alcohol-fueled
The Dundalk Democrat has seen properties online which sleep up to 18 people at a time.
“I hope that business owners can see that they can still have tourism here, but having large groups of people in residential areas is hurtful. I don't mind a hen party in a hotel, people are entitled to enjoy themselves, just not in family housing estates. There was outrage recently when there was talk of a Boogie Bike coming to Carlingford. People are just sick of it now.
“It takes away from the charm of the village. And this summer it has hit rock bottom. Carlingford has been in the gutter but it will take moving away from hen and stag party business to come out of that.”
Another resident living in an estate in Carlingford spoke to the Dundalk Democrat saying he wished to remain anonymous on this contentious issue as to avoid any “unpleasantness”.
The Louth dad said: “Residential accommodation is not an appropriate place to have hen and stag parties staying in. I can appreciate that these landlords are looking at it from a business point of view, but at the end of the day appropriate accommodation should be provided.”
The man also told how many homeowners regularly leave their homes to get away from the “madness” on the weekends.
He explained: “The weekends can be bonkers. You can have hen and stag parties coming here continually from April to September. There are some people who can't stick it and they just leave Carlingford for the weekend. People who own houses here.
“The choices that residents are left with are either go somewhere else, confront the people making the noise repeatedly or get to the root cause and try to solve the issue. I don't like confronting people, and why should I have to as a resident?
“When I approached the landlord of this property and asked him why he was doing this and what solution he had he had no answer for me. It can't continue.”
Speaking of the letters issued by Louth County Council the Louth man said: “The real acid test will be after St. Patrick's Day which is when the season kicks off right through until September. We'll see what happens then.”
The angry resident called for more consideration from business owners and landlords in the area and called for a rebranding of the once peaceful medieval North Louth village.
He said: “Businesses and landlords in the area need to look at taking the tackiness out of it. Carlingford Village has a lot to offer besides hens and stags. This isn't what people signed up for when they bought houses here.”