'Much ado about nothing': Wexford holiday home owner found in 'hidden room' speaks out

This is the holiday home owner suspended from the booking.com website after a stunned family found him in a hidden room behind a makeshift wall in the house they rented from him.

Seamus Shay Conway told the Irish Mirror there was nothing sinister about him staying in an area that was partitioned from the living room of the house he has been renting out to tourists.

He insisted he did nothing wrong and said the property is booked out on the travel portal.

The story hit the headlines this week when shocked guest Therese phoned RTEs Liveline programme after she said she and her family found a man behind a wall during their one night stay at a holiday home she booked in Courtown, Co Wexford, last Saturday.

The Irish Mirror has spoken to the owner of the property at 26 Glenbeg Point in Courtown - who confirmed that it was him that Therese and her family discovered behind the wall.

Mr Conway, who we have also independently established is the registered owner of the house, claimed there was nothing sinister about the situation.

He said: Well I had a group of people who came to my house. They took a panel down off the wall after arriving straight in and called the police. Thats what happened, he claimed.

Asked if it was him who Thereses stunned partner discovered after he took down part of the plasterboard, Mr Conway said: I was (in there) yeah. In my room. And I have a back exit. Im entitled to stay there. Its my house.

Therese told Liveline this week that she booked the property along with her partner and two children.

She said she met the landlord to get a key and asked him if he would be there later on when she discovered he had the dryer on.

He had his clothes in his dryer at the time, and so they were drying away. I was leaving, heading back to the party, and I said, Will you be here tonight when I come back? And he went, Oh no, no, I wont be here she said.

A picture of the wall has also been published by the Irish Mirror - showing the gap where Thereses partner had later taken down the plasterboard and discovered Mr Conway in his partitioned room.

Therese this week said that when she and her partner came back to the property on Saturday night the washing machine was running which made them wonder if the landlord had returned.

I knocked off the washing machine because the kids were going to bed at that point, and I was like, Im going to knock off the washing machine because the single beds were right beside it, she said.

Feeling put off by the whole situation, Therese asked her partner to check the rooms, which is when they noticed something very strange with the property.

Still I felt a little bit weird. So I said to my partner, Will you go upstairs and just check all the rooms. And he went up, then he came back down. He was feeling a little bit weird. We didnt initially notice that there was like this partition-looking wall.

They then noticed a really thin piece of plasterboard with a nail and one part without a nail in the sitting room. So my partner went, Whats behind that? Because it looked like it could move. So when he went to move it, it came off, Therese said.

It was just darkness behind it and I hear hey, hey, so we obviously died. And I went, Is there somebody behind that wall? And he went, Yes. Now the man didnt come out near us, but like straight away, I went to get the kids and just leave right now.

However Mr Conway claimed: She booked it for one night. She arrived in and I showed her the house. She said it was fine.

Asked if he specifically told the family that his room was behind a wall in the house Mr Conway said: Well Im obviously going to be behind a wall in another room separated from the main house.

The room, which doesnt have a door inside the house, was accessible to Mr Conway via an exit out the back garden, he said. The back garden is divided by a fence into two - with the side that Mr Conway said he could exit from not being accessible to guests.

Mr Conway rejected the criticism directed against him and insisted that there was nothing wrong about him staying in his own home.

They say it was behind a wall. It was in a room with its own exit. Theres nothing wrong with that, Mr Conway said. To describe a wall as something sinister is very unusual.

Asked if he informed all of his guests that he was staying at the property Mr Conway said he did. If Im staying, yeah, he said. When it was relevant. Obviously not if I was not there.

Put to him that him staying behind the wall was at the very least unusual Mr Conway said: Well if you want to describe it like that as something sinister theres nothing I can do about that. But if there has to be a room there has to be a wall. Theres no getting around that. If theres no wall theres no separation.

Mr Conway, who said he was in Italy at the moment, insisted his property, which has since been temporarily suspended from Booking.com in the wake of this story, remains fully booked out.

Im actually full. Im full. Theres no availability. The last I looked at it all the bookings that I wanted were there. I had my quota for the year you know, he said.

Asked how he went to the toilet given he was residing in such a small space, Mr Conway responded: How did I go to the toilet? Em I have a bathroom there.

Again put to him that the entire situation was unusual he said: Well its being described in an unusual way. Theres nothing you can do about that really. I think its much ado about nothing.

Booking.com told the Irish Mirror that it had suspended Mr Conways ad pending an investigation. We take safety and security very seriously. As soon as we were made aware of this incident, we launched an investigation into the property, which is ongoing, a spokesperson said.

The property has been suspended while the investigation is completed.

Gardai meanwhile confirmed they had been called to the premises last Saturday - but no criminal wrongdoing was identified. A Garda spokesperson said: Garda in Gorey were called to a residential property in Gorey, Co. Wexford on Sunday 20th July, 2026. Garda responded to the matter and no criminal offence disclosed, at this time.

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