Living in the path of Dublin airport flights
Sarda IN is a voluntary group in Northern Ireland that provides dogs for search and rescue, as well as for cadaver searches across Ireland. Video: Alan Betson
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Irish Times
5 hours ago
- Irish Times
Living in the path of Dublin airport flights
Sarda IN is a voluntary group in Northern Ireland that provides dogs for search and rescue, as well as for cadaver searches across Ireland. Video: Alan Betson
Irish Times
17 hours ago
- Irish Times
Wills and spouses: Why you cannot just cut a wife out of your will
An acquaintance left all his assets, mainly his house which is probably worth about €250,000, to a distant relative. He had been on bad terms with his wife of about 50 years and left her nothing. They had no children and were not legally separated or divorced. Their only income was the contributory old-age pension. Now the relative has told the widow that he wants to take possession of the house to sell it and pay capital acquisitions tax. He has helpfully suggested that she should enter a care home. I know that, by law, the lady is entitled to two-thirds of the value of the house, irrespective of the will but, assuming that the facts are as I've given them: can the will even go to probate? Can the widow continue to live in the house indefinitely given her contribution to the marriage or for some other reason? READ MORE Did the solicitor who drew up the will have an ethical or legal obligation to ask if the man was married? When I made a will recently, the solicitor didn't ask me if I was married. Mr DF Well, this is a bit of a mess, isn't it? There's being on bad terms with a spouse, and then there's trying to cut her out of a will entirely after 50 years of marriage. It must have been some row. The approach of the distant relative to whom the house has been left in the will is also sadly lacking in empathy. What a wonderful pair. There's nothing like a will to show up the worst side of people. More to the point, this will is unsustainable. You simply cannot disinherit a spouse entirely – at least not unless they have been convicted of killing you, trying to kill you or trying to cause you serious harm. If you die without a will, your spouse will automatically inherit your entire estate where there are no children and two-thirds of the estate (by value) where there are children. And in a case like this, where there is a will, a spouse is entitled to what is called a legal right share. That lays down that the spouse is automatically entitled to one-half of the entire estate in a situation like your acquaintance's wife where there are no children. If there had been children, the legal right share would be one-third of the estate. This entitlement ranks ahead of any other beneficiary, regardless of what the will says. Only creditors rank higher – ie, debts left outstanding by the deceased. If she was deliberately left in the dark, I would expect any court to back her right So whatever this distant relative thinks, in an estate where the sole or main asset is the family home, the relative has no absolute right to it until the wife has her share. And the onus is not on the spouse to claim this. It is the legal responsibility of the executor to the estate to notify the spouse that she has the right to half of the estate (in this example), regardless of what the will says. Having said that, they do need to claim the right within six months of being informed by the executor, or one year of the grant of representation (probate) being issued. If she was deliberately left in the dark, I would expect any court to back her right. If they had been legally separated, provision would likely have been made one way or the other in the formal separation for the handling of the legal right share. That's common enough. Divorce would have extinguished it. But neither is the case here. It is also possible for someone to renounce a legal right share but, again, that is a formal scenario and there would be a written record. And if the spouse argues that they were pressured into so doing, or simply did not understand what they were doing, they would be in a strong position to challenge such a renunciation in court. So the idea that a distant relative can wander in and tell her 'Sorry love, I want you out to sell the house. Maybe you can head on to a nursing home' is quite simply deluded. They have no such right. And even in a case like this, where it appears the wife's name is not on the deeds of the property and her legal right share will not be sufficient to secure ownership of the house in its entirety, she is not without options. The first course of action would be to pay the difference between the value of her right share and the balance of the market value of the house. In your scenario, where it appears she would not have the financial resources to do so, she could make a case to a court on hardship grounds. The court can rule in those circumstance that the money does not have to be paid, although it is not obliged to do so. Whatever this distant relative thinks, in an estate where the sole or main asset is the family home, the relative has no absolute right to it until the wife has her share Has the solicitor drawing up the will on behalf of his client the moral or legal duty to inquire whether there is a spouse, and then to notify the client of the legal right share provision? No, not a legal or moral duty, but they certainly have a commonsense one. I cannot imagine a solicitor advising a mature client on their will where no mention is made of a spouse not at least querying whether there are any close family, given they would certainly be aware of the legal right share provision. After all, failure to do so and to make provision is only storing up trouble for the executor, who may well be the same solicitor, when they have to manage probate and the distribution of the estate. Please send your queries to Dominic Coyle, Q&A, The Irish Times, 24-28 Tara Street Dublin 2, or by email to with a contact phone number. This column is a reader service and is not intended to replace professional advice
Irish Times
21 hours ago
- Irish Times
Transforming and personalising old furniture: ‘If things go wrong, it can be easily rectified'
In homes across Ireland in 2025, there is an appetite for more personalised eclectic styles where comfort and character mingle with sleek modern design. There's a growing appreciation for vintage and restored furniture – including old counters and cabinets from closed shops used in domestic settings – either bought second hand or revamped after years of neglect. Waterford-based artist and interior designer Marianne Heaphy, aka the Revamp Tramp , is one of the leaders of this band of upcycling enthusiasts. In her workshops she gives people the know-how and confidence to bring new life to tables, chests of drawers, chairs, lampshades and bookcases. At a Saturday workshop in Waterford city, she is explaining her techniques and sharing a range of materials – from paints and primers to wood stains, stencils, gold leaf and wallpaper – with the six participants who have each brought along one piece of furniture to revamp. Mary Kennedy and Olive Hanlon at the workshop Olive Hanlon from Kilmacthomas in Co Waterford has a glossy pine bedside locker, which she wants to spruce up for use in her 16-year-old son Syd's bedroom. She has painted skirting boards, airing cupboards and tables in the past. READ MORE 'I see now how I did things wrong by putting on too much primer, followed by an undercoat and paint. I would have saved myself hours of work if I had come to this workshop first,' she says. Edel Kiely Edel Kiely from Pilltown, Co Kilkenny, is also upcycling a bedside locker for her son, Finn (13). Originally a light pink colour, she repaints it a subtle dark blue. 'I'm very happy with it. It looks expensive,' says Kiely. Kathleen O'Hanlon, from Kilmacow, Co Kilkenny, is here to bring some new life into a green table she bought second hand, which has been sitting on her upstairs landing for years. Although not an expensive piece, it has attractive splayed legs and after a bit of work, it looks much smarter. She has also brought along a plant stand she bought at auction for €5. 'I enjoy painting and seeing how the pieces transform. I did a rocking chair in one of these courses before,' she says. An oval table and a television stand are other pieces she has worked on. [ The rise of repair cafes: 'It's not sustainable to keep buying new stuff' Opens in new window ] Deirdre Clooney has been renovating her 1920s home in Waterford for the last seven years. She's here with a small green chest of drawers which she paints an aubergine colour, in-setting small strips of patterned wallpaper into the front panels of the drawers and on the top of the piece, using a technique called decoupage. 'I've always been interested in upcycling. I've done a mosaic with broken pieces of glass on my garden wall and another mosaic with tiles on the base of my courtyard,' she says, showing pictures of her work. Mary Kennedy Mary Kennedy from Joanstown, Co Waterford, has brought along two vintage foot stools with woven cord seats. The stools, which came from her deceased mother-in-law's home, have sentimental value. 'My husband used to sit on one of these stools for his dinner as a child, so he's very attached to them,' she says. She repaints one to put in her 10-year-old daughter Beatrice's playhouse. The second, which she meticulously sands and rubs beeswax into, will be used as a plant stand in her kitchen. Many of her friends go to antique fairs, seeking out older pieces for their homes. 'People don't appreciate the full modern look any more. We pick out one or two individual statement pieces to mix in with modern furniture,' she says. Noreen Taberlin from Mullinavat in Co Kilkenny has a flat-pack matt grey small table which she transforms with gold paint. She creates a point of interest by pasting on colourful patterned paper to the top surface of the table, using the same material for the front panel of the table's drawer. At the workshop, the mood is jovial and lighthearted – a few women joke about how it gets them away from their husbands for the day. But while there is plenty of banter, there are also moments of quiet industriousness. The restoration workshop Most of Heaphy's workshop participants are women – although when she runs them at the Rediscovery Centre in Ballymun, some couples come along together. (Her next Furniture Revamping workshops at the Rediscovery Centre are on June 28th, August 23rd and September 27th and cost €120. See .) The Rediscover Furniture social enterprise at the Rediscovery Centre also runs long-term training programmes in furniture restoration and repair, wood working and contemporary and traditional upholstery. 'The aim of the course is that people will go into full-time employment or set up their own businesses afterwards,' says Nessa Doran O'Reilly, the programme manager. A cabinet maker, Doran O'Reilly studied conservation and restoration of furniture and decorative arts at High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire in England. She also runs public workshops in furniture reupholstery at the Rediscovery Centre (the next one is on August 30th). The Rediscovery Centre also sells second hand furniture in their Second Life shop on Ballymun's Main Street, which is a great place to pick up an old piece to upcycle. But if you're not interested in doing the work yourself, the Ecostore on the first floor of the Rediscovery Centre has some stylish pieces that have already been upcycled. Taoiseach Micheal Martin and Nessa Doran O'Reilly, the furniture programme manager at the Rediscovery Centre in Ballymun, at Bloom festival in May. Photograph: Liam McBurney/PA Wire Alongside the one-off workshops that she runs around the country, Heaphy is project manager for the Loved Back to Life social enterprise in Waterford city. There, she runs back-to-work courses for men and women recovering from addiction at the Aiséirí residential centres. One of her partners in this work is Finline Furniture, a high-end sofa factory that started a take-back scheme for old sofas last year. 'We've always offered a re-covering service but in 2024, we decided to work with a social enterprise to get these returned pieces stripped back to their foam,' says Vanessa O'Rourke. Customers who return a Finline furniture sofa are given a €100 voucher to spend in store. The company, which has retail outlets in Emo in Co Laois, Dublin, Galway and Cork, then takes back the sofas from Aiséirí and reupholsters them in their own factory for sale in their Revive range. 'We use sample or end-of-life rolls of fabric to cut out wastage and keep the costs down, so we can sell these pieces for 20-50 per cent of the equivalent new sofa,' says O'Rourke. 'It's about extending the life of something well made, reducing environmental waste and supporting individuals as they rebuild their lives through skilled work,' says Ciarán Finane, director of Finline Furniture. [ 'My husband's attempts were a disaster': The women DIYing it for themselves Opens in new window ] Back at the Waterford workshop, Heaphy is on hand with advice on everything from spreading a thin coat of primer before painting the surface to looking after paintbrushes (top tip: leave brushes in a jar of water rather than wrapped up in a plastic bag after using water-based paint). 'Stay away from the pound shops and buy decent brands of brushes at your local hardware shop,' she says. Relaxed yet attentive, she has an unflappable manner that accommodates everyone. 'In all my years doing these workshops, I've never had a fail yet,' she says. If things go wrong, it can be easily rectified. 'The main thing to remember is that we're not surgeons here. It's about not taking it too seriously, and enjoying yourself.' Many of the participants talk about the meditative quality of working on their pieces of furniture. 'It's very mindful, says Taberlin. 'You don't think of anything else when you're doing this,' adds Kennedy.
