FOR Irish people, land is an extension of who we are and property boundary disputes seem to confirm this time and time again. Ireland, from 1997 to 2007, witnessed a property bubble and collapse from 2008 onward, with the result being one of the world’s most expensive banking bailouts ever. The value of land and property had inflated up to over 200% and the average home prices had risen by 280% by 2007, according to the 2011 Global Property Guide.

Boundary disputes can be wretched affairs where the financial cost of litigation frequently exceeds the value of the land concerned. Sometimes the area of land in dispute can be very small, but litigation may ensue because of its critical location or its strategic importance to the owners concerned. In other cases, the land/boundary dispute may become a proxy for another issue in dispute because the land concerned may not be worth very much at all.