A dispute between neighbours over what one calls "noisy parties" and the other describes as "spontaneous social gatherings" could be sorted out by talking to each other, Judge Dympna Cusack said yesterday.
She gave the advice when she adjourned a noise abatement action taken by Suzanne Reid, who lives at Hayden's Park Dale, Lucan, Dublin, with her husband Tony, against Leona Hanratty, who lives in an adjoining semi-detached house with her partner, Ciarán Anderson.
The Reids claimed they had endured regular parties going on into the early hours of the morning, often waking their three children, aged between two and eight.
Ms Hanratty said they were mostly spontaneous gatherings of four or five friends, while Mr Anderson said poor noise insulation was to blame.
"If the phone rings in their [ the Reids] house, I sometimes think it is ours," Mr Anderson told Dublin District Court.
The Reids said the parties has been going on for the last seven years since they moved in, but had become more regular in the last year.
"When the children wake up, we can't get them back to sleep because of this rave techno music being played," Ms Reid said.
The music was turned down in the early days when the Reids approached their neighbours, but eventually it was not and they gave up because complaining only made the music louder or last longer.
On one occasion recently, when Mr Reid complained, Ms Hanratty told him: "We pay the mortgage on this house and until you pay it, you will not tell us what to do."
Ms Hanratty claimed Mr Reid had "a personal vendetta" against her. "He is very aggressive towards me and it's a clash of personalities." She said they had one party a year, usually for Ciarán's birthday, but all other occasions were "spontaneous social gatherings" up to five or six times a year.
They did everything possible to keep the noise down. "People who come over to the house cannot relax because I take them [ the Reids] into consideration so much," she said.
Mr Anderson, her partner, said they did not blare the music but the party [ shared] wall was so thin that one can hear the television when it is on. He was willing to sort the matter out but the Reids did not want to talk to them.
Judge Cusack accepted the Reids' evidence but she would not make an order, if any, until July, during which time the parties could discuss their problems. "I would urge people in Ms Hanratty's house to see if the music could be kept a little lower," the judge said.