JJ Sherlock (14) was celebrating playing with the Feohanagh/Castlemahon team that won the minor county championship last week. The week before that, his older brother Dermot (23) also celebrated being on the victorious side in the West Limerick Junior B hurling final. Their father, Seamus, has never missed a game but he had to miss both his sons’ victories because he cannot leave his home in case the sheriff’s officers move in and seize the property.
The three youngest Sherlock girls, Bernadette (19), Brigid (18) and Mary-Kate (13) scramble over silage bales each morning, dragging their school-bags with them because the bales are set firmly in place against the door of their house to prevent anyone coming in to evict them.
For a 14 year-old, JJ is remarkably stoic about what is, at best, a very pressured situation.
“I’m proud of my dad – he’s doing it for us. No-one in my school has anything negative to say and the teachers and staff just say ‘stay strong’. We’re not giving in”, he told the Limerick Post.
The small army of helpers who have come to stand guard with the Sherlocks feel the same way.
John Mullen comes down from Dublin any day he has off. “I’m here to support Seamus and his family. Where does it stop? They can’t put everyone in the country out on the side of the road.”
George Sheehy is a neighbour from a mile up the road. “I come every day to do a few hours. I believe Seamus is dead right to try to keep his house for his family”.
John believes that the government can enact legislation which will prevent the lending institutions from seizing family homes when people are willing to make a meaningful effort to pay.
“What I would say to them is, why allow a family to be put under this kind of stress? There are kids going to school in the morning not knowing if their daddy or their home will be there when they come back”.
A parade of flags fluttering in the wind is testament to the geographical spread of support for the family’s stand. There are flags from Limerick, Armagh, Kerry, Cork, Galway, Donegal, Dublin, Tipperary, Wexford, Offaly, Roscommon, Carlow, Wicklow and Clare.
“People who come to support us have been bringing their county flags. The Munster flag is mine”, said Seamus.
