A High Court judge has stepped in to temporarily stop a landlord throwing out a number of tenants on Dublin's famous Moore Street.
Caroline Kelly, counsel for a group of tenants, told Ms Justice Mary Irvine yesterday that one of the premises facing closure was a mosque. She said landlord Richard Quirke and his company, Baycross Developments Ltd, had told the tenants the shops from which they ran their businesses had been sold to a developer.
Ms Kelly said she represented Manan Hameed who traded as Anwar-E-Madina spiritual centre or mosque; Ishrat Hameed, who runs the Madina Asian Food Company; Grace Wei Liu, owner of the China House Restaurant; hairdressers Nathanial and Cynthia Dantie of Studio Zee and Caroline and Seyi Olayiwola, Crystal Ventures Ireland Ltd.
She told Ms Justice Irvine that the tenants had operated their shops for eight years without tenancy agreements and had been moved around from shop to shop to stop them acquiring statutory rights under landlord and tenant legislation.
Ms Kelly said her clients did not have a full understanding of English and they had signed documents on the word of their landlord that their tenancies would be continued by the new owner.
Then almost overnight they had been presented with agreements to vacate the premises which they had unknowingly signed and had been told to get out.
Ms Justice Irvine granted interim injunctions restraining Mr Quirke and his company from interfering with the tenants' enjoyment of their premises and from interfering with supplies of electricity and water. She granted the landlord leave to apply to have the injunctions lifted.