Young children may be in danger - what can be done?

redz11

Basically, the situation is as follows. About two years ago, a family from Northern Ireland bought and moved into a house across the road from us. They had five young children including a tiny baby, and the oldest girls became friends with my own younger siblings.

When they moved in, my younger 18 year old sister offered to babysit for them, and I got roped in too when she couldn't do it. I'm a bit old for babysitting tbh, but when an absolutely hammered woman rings you from the local pub on a Sunday afternoon and asks you will you come down to the pub to collect her baby and toddler and bring them home to feed them, it's hard to say no. :mad: I used to come get them, and they'd be soaked right through their nappies and absolutely starving, the poor things. I suppose really I should have just rung the guards at the time.

Anyways within a few weeks of them moving in, it became very clear that their children were being neglected. I know that they were reported to social services by several families on the street, as well as by members of their own family (the father's siblings used to call down from the North to check up on the kids, because they knew what the parents were like, and quite often it would happen that the parents were off on a bender when they called ... indeed, at one stage, they brought the youngest two back with them for a couple of weeks. I doubt the parents even noticed!) I believe the local school they were attending also had reason to get in touch with social services for non-attendance etc.

All of a sudden, the family left without warning and we heard nothing of them since.

Recently they have returned, plus another new baby. Turns out they had gone back to Northern Ireland, and are now home for a few weeks for a "holiday". They seem worse, if anything. Kids are running about barefoot and barely clothed. They're all so skinny and sad looking. And the 2 and 3 year old toddlers are allowed to wander the streets of the estate, completely alone, right up until ten at night! They haven't a clue about the dangers of traffic (let alone all the other dangers that might be out there), and just five minutes ago I came within inches of running over the 3 year old girl as I was reversing into my driveway (she ran out from behind a bush in my garden directly beside the drive after I'd checked and started reversing in; it's a steep downhill driveway so once you start reversing visibility is very poor ... I doubt I'd have even felt it if I'd hit her, she's so little. )

Of course, I will be reporting them to social services (again.) When it was done before, it was always done anonymously by anyone in the neighbourhood who reported them. I'm wondering if it might perhaps be taken more seriously if a name is given by the person reporting them? If it came down to it, I'd be willing to do that, because the fact is that one of those babies will be hit by a car, or god knows what else, in the very near future, if something isn't done.

But social services seemed to do nothing last time. Is there another child protection group that might be able to get involved in a case like this?

Then there's also the cross-border aspect. They might be moving between Northern and Southern Ireland in order to avoid social services when they start investigating them. Do social services actually follow up on cases when they "disappear" from the address? The kids do get registered in schools, so there must be some trace. And I assume the parents are getting benefits from somewhere to fuel their drinking. :mad:

I suppose my question is, apart from calling into social services first thing tomorrow, what else can I do to help these kids? As it is, most of them usually get a hot meal each day courtesy of my mother, but I wish we could just take them all in and away from those excuses of human beings. :mad:

Morag

Ring social services and also call into the local garda station and tell the desk Sargent what is going on.

tinkerbell

^^^ What Sharrow said, call the police immediately.

I feel so angry reading this thread, how can anyone treat their precious little babies like that? there are so many people who can't have kids and then you have these people that dont know how lucky they are, its so screwed up that drink is their priority to the detriment of their children.

You have to report this again, and again if nothing happens - its not easy but those kids need a saviour, you care about their welfare - thank god someone does. Only last week the nation was appalled at the case of the mother who abused and neglected her children for years - the authorities let those children down, if only someone listened and took action they might not have had such a horrific upbringing. It needs to be reported again, if social services wont listen tell the guards - please tell someone in authority who will listen and can help this terrible situation.

Whynotme

Report them. And if you see the children out unattended at night, phone the Gardai. Maybe also write to SS in N. Ireland with their names and your concerns. Give details of previous reportings and state as they move between houses you think they should be aware also.

deisemum

Your best bet is to phone the gardai each and everytime you see them left unattended because the more call outs the gardai do the stronger the case for something to be done. This is what the gardai told my neighbours and myself to do and why.

As you've seen for yourself social services do sod all but if there is a list of call outs from the gardai who pass all such reports onto social services then hopefully it will put some pressure on social services to do something.

Keep reporting all you see to social services and keep a record of it. Giving your name doesn't make a blind bit of difference. I think it's a good idea to contact social services in NI.

social services tend to try and work with families, so basically they will leave the kids with them and try to work together with them rather than take kids away.

its nearly impossible for anyone to lose custody of their kids in this country from what i can see.

ring gardai everytime you see the kids out on the streets late or if you know the parents are hammered and unable to look after them.
unfortunately, chances are even if the gardai do take the kids, which only happens if there is IMMEDIATE danger to them, social services will give them back within a day or two.

i agree with ringing gardai, really is all you can do.

oh and once someone is on the books of the social services here, northern ireland or england, they share information. as long as they know where the family has gone they will make other jurisdictions aware, so if you tell social services here inform them that they used to live in the north so they can liase with their northern counterparts.

Moomoo1

I wouldn't give a name, if only because your siblings are friends with their children, and it's not a nice situation to put them into

JonathanAnon

You sound like a nice person

Just gonna throw this out there... Have you tried contacting the grandparents, since they seem to be responsible? Would be easy enough to trace with internet, facebook, social engineering.

liz2

redz11, as the previous poster said, u sound like a nice person & these children really do need a saviour, someone that can stand up for them & hopefully make a difference.
as we all know, they deserve that chance of a safe and loving upbringing & if their own parents cant do that, please god someone else will.
as a mother of 3 young children myself, this story hit me like a concrete block, as i certainly could not imagine my own children having to live in these circumstances. i also have a 3 and a 2 year old and crikey, if they even make a legger from my front door to the car alone, im after them...let alone leave them out to wander on their own? crazy stuff
please keep us updated & fairplay to you again for being concerned about them & trying to do something about it

Galway K9

Ring the ****ing cops!

Miaireland

Hi, first of all well done for doing what you're doing. Many people turn a blind eye for an easy life.

I would contact the Gardai and and also Social Services. However when onto Social Services ask to speak to the Social Worker who is handling that families case and if needs be request they you back rather than just talking to whoever is available.

LadyMayBelle

Ring the gardai and the social services dept every time and keep lodging these urgent referrals. I can 100% guarantee that families like this hop north and south and evade social services...the communication between different social services dept can be shocking so I would insist on it being chased up where ever it goes.. keep ringing and ringing

We've a family in very similar situation where I live at home; and speaking as a social worker, the social work intervention was pure shi**e, and still is. But keep pressing on..if those kids have anything they have you giving them a hot meal and some consistency...

redz11

Just an update on this.

We have been ringing the guards each and every time we see the younger kids out on their own. They always say they'll come out straight away, but we haven't seen them out once yet. :mad:

The thing is, any time we see the babies out on the road on their own, either myself or a member of my family or one of the neighbours goes out to look after them. I'm beginning to wonder if the parents have realised this, and don't see them as their responsibility any more, since they know we'll look after them. :rolleyes:

Today, their father called by our house because the 3 year old girl and 1 year old boy had gone missing (god knows how long they'd been missing before he realised.) We eventually found the 3 year old a few streets away, and brought her home. Still no sign of the little boy. My parents went out in the car to search for him. They left the estate, and a bit down the road, they saw four cars pulled in. The baby was there - he had been sitting down in the middle of the road (this is the main Sligo to Donegal road.) The drivers who had pulled in to rescue him had called the Gardai, and when the father arrived, they refused to give the child back until the Gardai got there. Don't know if anything will come of that.

I'm having no more of this. I will be going in to the social services office in the morning, and not leaving until someone comes out to the house.

I just feel so angry and frustrated that no one apart from the neighbours appears to care about these little children. It seems as though nothing will be done until it's too late. And I'm scared that, even if the local Gardai/social services get up off their arses and do something, it'll just make the parents head off somewhere else again to avoid them.

Those poor little children. Life's just not fair sometimes. :mad: