Around 300 sheep were moved out of the shed while efforts continued to extinguish the fire.

At Ennis District Court, farmer Patrick Cahir said that he had made ‘mistakes’ and “a lot of things went wrong together” in 2023

A sitting of Wicklow Circuit Criminal Court heard a flock of around 18 sheep including ewes and lambs were penned into a shed with no water and which contained the carcass of a ram.

The animals were found washed up on Nairn Beach on Sunday, and it is not yet known what caused their deaths.

The ewes were taken from a field in Claudy and comes after another theft of sheep in the area last month.