Leap hermits relocating to 24-acre farm near Dunmanway

THE two hermit women currently living in what amounts to a series of garden sheds at an unauthorised development at a site in Corran, Leap are believed to be moving to a 24-acre farm, including an old residence, near Dunmanway.

According to their own website, the women have no running water, electricity or sewage facilities where they currently live.

Mother Irene, who lives alongside  Sr Annemarie Loeman, is also subject to a court ruling ordering the two hermits to vacate the site at Corran before the end of June 2021. They have described the Council’s decision to bring proceedings under the State’s planning laws as ‘the malicious work of Satan’.

They were also recently issued with an order by the Health Products Regulatory Authority to remove medical claims attributed to an ointment they are selling.

The Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) confirmed that it requested the removal of medicinal claims in respect of a product sold by the women who say they are members of the Carmelite Sisters of the Holy Face of Jesus.

The Southern Star now understands that the farm at Inchincurka, Dunmanway, which is four miles from Inchigeelagh, and five miles north of Dunmanway, is to become the duo’s new home. The selling agent, Hodnett Forde, did not comment on the sale.

More than €78,000 was raised for the two women on a Go Fund Me page, which does not appear to be currently accessible.

Although other media have referred to the nuns as ‘Carmelites’, a spokesperson for the Irish Carmelite Order in Ireland confirmed to The Southern Star that the nuns are not members of their order.

A spokesperson for Bishop of Cork and Ross clarified that the women do not belong to any religious community which is in communion with the Catholic Church. He said they entered into a schism and ‘attribute their allegiance to an organisation which was established in Spain in the 1970s and which is referred to as the Palmarian Church.’