I went in some distress to my local curate Fr. Liam Boyle, without whose support, guidance, encouragement and quiet understanding I would have floundered long ago. During our conversation he suggested that I should write to the Ombudsman. I wrote to the Ombudsman on December 17th 1977, but Gemma's admission to the maternity hospital put any thoughts of posting the letter completely out of my mind, and according to CC 19/78 the Commissioner for Complaints (Northern Ireland's version of an Ombudsman) did not receive my letter until January 11th 1978. In the meantime another little girl had been safely delivered and brought home to a disrupted household. Our delight and the other children's delight at the new arrival was tempered by our distress at having to open windows and occasionally doors in the middle of winter to let smoke as well as heat, expensive heat from our new central heating system, out into the cold. The alternative was to put the children's health, especially the new baby's health, at risk.

Christmas that year was a very special time for us all. Our little girl Nuala was just a few days old and as for every Christmas of our marriage, Gemma made every effort to make it an event to remember. There was the usual fuss among the girls on Christmas Eve as they got ready for Mass. The two boys were content to do the bare necessities, as usual. After Mass it was home and as quickly to bed with the younger children as possible, then the older children excitedly retrieved dolls, books for reading and colouring, socks, hankies, sewing sets, painting sets and lots of other goodies from their hiding places all over the house. A squeak from a dropped doll would bring a chorus of "Shusssss" while the lit up Christmas tree seemed to grow smaller the more the presents were piled around its base. Gemma was the main culprit for making noise.

Anything that wound up or moved she had to try it. The beavering santas did their best to ensure that those upstairs, threatened with empty stockings if they did not go to sleep as soon as their heads touched their pillows, were unaware of all the lovely fuss. After all the presents were checked for air, road and child worthiness, and boxes and paper were put in the bin or beside it, we all went upstairs to bed. For many years our Christmas Day has always started around 5.00am. One of the children would always waken too early and before you could say Happy Christmas there was enough noise in the living room to waken even me. The Christmas dinner was always a blessed relief as well as a most welcome and beautifully prepared meal. In those early days our family took meals in almost monastic silence. It was a beautiful atmosphere but it was to last too short a time.

Commissioner for Complaints falls for Council Lies

I started back to work a few days after Christmas and only remembered to post my letter to the Ombudsman after the first week in January 1978. By this time, Gemma, who had not yet fully recovered from the birth of our new baby, had telephoned me at work in tears to say that she had telephoned Mr. Jones and told him that she had to open even the front and rear doors to let the smoke from next door out of our house, but that Mr. Jones was just not interested. The following day Gemma telephoned me again in tears asking me what to do and telling me the house was so cold when she opened the doors and the baby was coughing with the smoke when she kept the doors closed. I told her that the Ombudsman would make the Council get something done very soon. I received the following letter from the Ombudsman or the Commissioner for Complaints dated January 13th 1978;

"Reference: CC 19/78
Mr G Rice
56 Carlisle Park
Ballynahinch
Co Down
Dear Mr. Rice
Thank you for your letter dated 17 December 1977 (received on 11 January 1978) enclosing a complaint concerning a nuisance from smoke in your house. Under the Commissioner for Complaints Act the Commissioner is empowered to investigate complaints against local authorities including Down District Council.
From enquiries made into you case, however, I learned that at a meeting convened by the Council on 8 December 1977 and attended by you, Mr. Brown (Builder), a Building Control Officer and Mr. Allen, Clerk to the Council, the matter of your complaint was fully discussed and Mr. Brown agreed that he would carry out necessary remedial work. I understand that the Council's representatives were satisfied that the suggested work would alleviate the problem.
While he can understand your frustrations in this matter the Commissioner considers that you should co-operate with the builder in the hope that the smoke nuisance may be finally eradicated.
In the circumstances he does not propose to take any action in the matter.
From the papers enclosed with your letter it would seem that the smoke problem in your house is essentially a matter between you and the builder. In this connection I note that you have been in correspondence with the National House-Building Council (NI) and that you have been advised that you have a legal remedy against the builder. It would appear that the House-Building Council cannot assist you because the defect was not brought to the attention of the builder within the initial defects period (2 years).
I would also point out that under the Act the Commissioner may not normally undertake an investigation where the aggrieved person has a remedy by way of legal proceedings in a court of law.
I return the photographs enclosed with your complaint.
Yours sincerely
F Sullivan
Director"

Desperate Plight

Gemma and I were both quite desperate now. We had planned to live in No. 56 for about three or four years and then sell it. With whatever profit we would get we had hoped to renovate the old cottage at 11 Newcastle Road with the help of a building grant. Now we were in a situation where we had bought a defective house, completely defective, illegal and dangerous as we were to find out later, a house which we could neither live in safely nor in conscience sell to make a profit and so far, nobody cared.
Inflation and house prices had risen and were still rising at that time to such an extent that had we been able to sell No. 56 we would have made three times the profit we had hoped for. This made our dilemma all the more difficult to accept. Now as I read this letter from the Commissioner for Complaints, especially where the Commissioner would not normally undertake an investigation where a complainant had a legal remedy, I wondered if this was why DDC had stated as part of their "ACTION" taken at their November 21st 1977 meeting,

"Failing agreement the owners should be advised to seek legal advice on the matter",

in order to try to protect themselves in the event of a complaint being taken to the Commissioner. I also find it very difficult to believe that the NHBC were not informed about the smoke problem within the initial two years period. Our hallway had now been in quite a mess for three and a half months. The large gaping hole in our half of the party wall directly behind the fireplace of No. 54 exposed, for all to see, the smoke blackened terralux at the side of Joyces's fireplace as the cause of our problem. Among the people who came to see for themselves were the parish priest accompanied by one of his parishioners.
On one occasion we returned to No.56 to find that we could not enter the house so dense was the smoke inside. Since our own fireplace was closed up, the smoke had nowhere to go and as we were out of the house for some time leaving the doors and windows closed there was just a constant build-up of smoke inside No.56.
I phoned the fire brigade from our phone which was right beside our front door, then I made a big mistake. I ran through the house to the back door and opened it and I left the front door open. When the fire brigade arrived nearly all the smoke had gone. The smoke was still clearly visible coming out from the holes in the terralux blocks and even though the policeman and the local chief fire officer witnessed this smoke entering our home, I received a warning of the seriousness of calling out the fire brigade for no good reason. The chief fire officer lived only a few doors away in a similarly defective house in Carlisle Park.
Unlike the other people who had complained unsuccessfully about this type of problem especially in Carlisle Park, I had an option which they did not have. I had somewhere else to go. I decided that I had to take my family out of this mess.

Gemma and I went to see the manager of the Allied Irish bank in Downpatrick and by depositing the deed of No. 11 Newcastle Road with the bank we obtained a loan of £4,000. We intended using some of the money to buy another second-hand mobile home to place alongside the old cottage which was now vacant and move back to the way we were before we bought No. 56.

We bought a mobile home for £800. I now needed a bigger and better car to keep the children at their new schools. We went to our local scrap dealer, Mr. James Megoran, and bought a damaged ex-army Austin 1800 for £450. A few days steady work and we had our best car ever. I marvelled at the children's excitement about the change and noticed that a new term was being often used, viz. "Smokey Park".

Be Silent

I began chipping away our half of the party wall as often as I could. I believed that the problem could be cured if as many of the terralux blocks as possible could be replaced with proper solid blocks or bricks. On the evening of April 17th 1978 I was chipping away when the telephone in No. 56 rang. It was Mr. Jones from DDC. He told me that I was making noise and it was disturbing the owners of No. 54. I really do not remember what I said to him but in a way I was beginning to feel sorry for the poor man. Among other things, he told me that Mr. Brown was to have met Mr. Joyce the previous Monday but Brown said he had to go to keep a dental appointment. Another meeting had been arranged for April 19th 1978. This was not what Mr. Joyce had told his bosses, Down District Councillors, at the Council meeting four months earlier. Had he known that my delicate chipping had taken me already to within one or two inches of the wallpaper covering the chimney breast and wall in No. 54 he would probably have been ill.

Mr. Jones's hands were tied. Mine were free. The wall between the two houses was built with two rows of terralux blocks. This meant in practice that there were only six half inch vertical thicknesses of brittle burnt clay separating the two houses, helping to hold up the roof and acting as a fire wall. There were only three such half inch thicknesses holding up the roof at the front and rear walls.

When I removed three of these half inch pieces from my half of the party wall, the half of the party wall belonging to No. 54 was exposed. By removing a further two pieces of the terralux from Joyce's half of the party wall I was within one or two inches of Joyce's wallpaper. By replacing the removed terralux with solid bricks I hoped to get some peace.
When I had the terralux removed from either side of Joyce's chimney breast I started to chip away at either side of the solid bricks directly behind Joyce's fire and into more terralux blocks which were built into the jambs on either side of his fire. The work of the professional builders was a sight to see. Bits and pieces of terralux blocks and bits and pieces of bricks were just thrown into the area which made up Joyce's chimney breast instead of being properly built with good solid and legal material.
I took many photographs as I went along. I had now gone as far as I dared and called in a real professional in the building trade, J.G. Dorrian. I was still very unhappy about the attitude of the Commissioner for Complaints to my plight and had writen to him again.

I received the following letter from the Commissioner dated February 27th 1978;

"Dear Mr. Rice
Commissioner for Complaints Act (NI) 1969.
Thank you for your letter of 20 February.
The Commissioner is still of the opinion that the smoke problem in your house is essentially a matter between you and the builder. I have spoken to Mr. Allen, the Clerk to the Council, and Mr. Jones, the Chief Public Health Inspector, and understand that your neighbour has no objection to the work being carried out.
Mr. Jones has agreed to see Mr. Joyce and the builder in order to arrange a suitable date for the work to commence. Yours sincerely
F Sullivan
Director"

The first letter from the Commissioner was sent to No. 56 Carlisle Park. This second letter was sent to No. 11 Newcastle Road. The Commissioner knew that we had left our smoky home, but even though almost three months had elapsed since the meeting on December 8th 1977 at which it was stated in Mr. Jones's official Report to his Council that it was agreed that the terralux bricks which formed the jambs of Joyce's fireplace should be removed and replaced with solid bricks, a job which had to be done inside Joyce's house, the Commissioner was still saying that it was still a matter between me and the builder. Of course this is exactly what the Council Officials wanted the Commissioner to believe. It must also be remembered that in fact nothing was agreed to at that meeting on December 8th 1977.

Legal Redress At Last - Or So I Thought!

About this time we received a telephone call from Mr. James Chambers, solicitor, in Downpatrick, asking us to come to his office the following day as he had received what he called "the green light" from Mr. John Pringle Q. C. and court proceedings could be started right away. We were delighted.