Mother - whose partner drowned last year - and five children forced to live in car

Division · 02-06-2017 03:10PM #1

This is the headline from an independent.ie article today:

"Mother - whose partner drowned last year - and five children forced to live in car outside cemetery"

Story in a nutshell:

A mother got a free house from the council in a nice area of Co. Clare for her and her 5 children.

It was a countryside area, lush green fields, farm animals, fresh air, ect. You get the picture.

She was bored. Not a lot of entertainment around this area, unless you factor in the hundred or so activities available to anyone willing to move their ass.

The children didn't fancy looking out the window at cows apparently. Most of us who grew up in the countryside can understand this boredom from time to time but it didn't do us any harm. If anything we had a healthy lifestyle.

So this 'mother' left this free house in a beautiful countryside area and went to Cork hoping to get a free house there where there was more things to do in the city and took her 5 children with her.

She wasn't given a free house immediately so she put her kids into a car, parked it outside a cemetery in Cork and had an Independent journalist (if you can even call most of them journalists anymore) take a picture of them all looking very sad and made a claim that they sleep in the car beside this cemetery.

The headline is disgraceful:
"Mother" - that is very debatable and seems to be in name only!
"whose partner drowned last year" - very sad but irrelevant to this story.
"five children forced to live in car outside cemetery" nobody forced them to live in a car outside a cemetery. They had a lovely home in a very scenic area.

I don't normally post about issues like this but this one genuinely annoyed me.

To report this or any other form of child neglect this is the place: http://www.tusla.ie/services/child-protection-welfare/contact-a-social-worker

I believe this is the journalist (not confirmed) that wrote this piece of nonsense and seems to have gone for the sensational story instead of being at all concerned that the mother has neglected her children's welfare for her own selfish reasons: https://www.linkedin.com/in/olivia-kelleher-1317095a/

Finally here is a link to this article: http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/mother-whose-partner-drowned-last-year-and-five-children-forced-to-live-in-car-outside-cemetery-35780673.html

Comments were available on this story and they all basically attacked the mother for being an eejit and putting her children in this situation. The comments are no longer there.

PV%20010617%20%206%20Read-Only.JPG

pilly · 02-06-2017 03:12PM

Listening to Niall Boylan this afternoon? Nothing to do?

goose2005 · 02-06-2017 03:13PM

Focus Ireland got her the housing in Clare, not the council.

Kimbot · 02-06-2017 03:14PM

"I will take anything once they give us a roof over our heads"

Sorry love but you had a roof over your head and you chose to leave it.

livedadream · 02-06-2017 03:14PM

only point i can make as i dont know the facts is, legally having that many kids in the car is impossible to do safely.
lets say: two boaster seats for the two little ones, with the boy in the back, one girl in the front where does the other one sit?

razorblunt · 02-06-2017 03:16PM

A neighbour has already stated that the kids stay with the grandparents each night.

Division · 02-06-2017 03:16PM

goose2005 wrote: »

Focus Ireland got her the housing in Clare, not the council.

Does it matter who got her the house? Fact is she had it and she left with her 5 children!

Kimbot · 02-06-2017 03:16PM

livedadream wrote: »

only point i can make as i dont know the facts is, legally having that many kids in the car is impossible to do safely.
lets say: two boaster seats for the two little ones, with the boy in the back, one girl in the front where does the other one sit?

Sure the mother isn't concerned with that.

Ms Doubtfire1 · 02-06-2017 03:17PM

uhg.People.:mad:

Ush1 · 02-06-2017 03:17PM

Is that not a lot of kids to have if you're already on state subsidised housing?

I certainly couldn't afford five kids, never mind have the time and energy to rear them right.

whoopsadoodles · 02-06-2017 03:18PM

How did she get there with 6 people in a 5 seater car?

Teyla Emmagan · 02-06-2017 03:18PM

That photo is hysterical.

NIMAN · 02-06-2017 03:19PM

Making yourself homeless seems to be a trend now.

As does getting your mug in the media in the hope it'll get you handed whatever you ask for. This tactic has worked for a few already, but if everyone starts it, it will become stale very quickly.

Stories like this aren't helping the homeless one bit. As most of the comments showed, the general public can see though crap. The bleeding hearts will of course blame the Government.

02-06-2017 03:21PM

I don't get the bit in the Indo article about her being in arrears on a house she lived in over a decade ago, am I reading it wrong?

J.pilkington · 02-06-2017 03:24PM

If I understand correctly this woman has a free house in Ireland, didn't pay her nominal rent and moved to the UK for at least 10years (so some of her children were born there) then returns home and gets a free house for a 2nd time but doesn't like it so contacts a thrash paper to spin lies.

I'm sorry but why should she priority over genuine Irish families for a THIRD time?

razorblunt · 02-06-2017 03:25PM

riffmongous wrote: »

I don't get the bit in the Indo article about her being in arrears on a house she lived in over a decade ago, am I reading it wrong?

It seems she left Cork to go live in the UK, may have left with arrears on her account. Now she's come back to Cork and gone through the system again it's been flagged.

Conservative · 02-06-2017 03:25PM

Amazing when you scratch beneath the surface of any of these homeless cases they are complete boll*cks. The people representing and encouraging these people (portrayed as heroes and modern day saints by the media) should be ashamed of themselves.

Take the kids off her and leave her in the car. Problem solved.

Doctor Nick · 02-06-2017 03:26PM

Lol. Saw this article today. Wondered how long it would take to see it on AH.

Straight to the back of the queue she should go. Giving up a house for one closer to family is not acceptable. She can travel after all!

silverharp · 02-06-2017 03:27PM

as the story is being told in the papers with certain facts omitted for extra sympathy , going to keep interest levels to a minimum.

02-06-2017 03:31PM

razorblunt wrote: »

It seems she left Cork to go live in the UK, may have left with arrears on her account. Now she's come back to Cork and gone through the system again it's been flagged.

Ah, that makes some sense

02-06-2017 03:39PM

Conservative wrote: »

Amazing when you scratch beneath the surface of any of these homeless cases they are complete boll*cks. The people representing and encouraging these people (portrayed as heroes and modern day saints by the media) should be ashamed of themselves.

Take the kids off her and leave her in the car. Problem solved.

What I find amazing, is that Journalists, dont seem to bother their hole checking stories any more.

I also think its very sad, that parents choose to put the children on the pages of newspapers, for some form of sympathy. Instead, Id say the children will be subject to ridicule from their school mates and others.

Macy0161 · 02-06-2017 03:42PM

But.... The Banks!

Turfcutter · 02-06-2017 03:45PM

Jake1 wrote: »

What I find amazing, is that Journalists, dont seem to bother their hole checking stories any more.

They probably do, but ignore certain facts that detract from the sensationalist aspect to the story.
Not too many people are paying attention when it starts to unravel a few days after.

pc7 · 02-06-2017 03:46PM

How much is child benefit for 5 kids, one parent family, she's probably on careers allowance (maybe), then add in respite grant if she is. How much is that a month along with free medical card, back to school allowance and a house she walked away from! Horrible carry on pimping the kids out like that, pure bs.

bucketybuck · 02-06-2017 03:50PM

Jake1 wrote: »

What I find amazing, is that Journalists, dont seem to bother their hole checking stories any more.

The journalist that used the word "forced" in that headline has not one ounce of integrity.

The only way "force" should be there is if the headline was "derelict mother forcing her kids to live in a car".

Kimbot · 02-06-2017 03:52PM

bucketybuck wrote: »

The journalist that used the word "forced" in that headline has not one ounce of integrity.

The only way "force" should be there is if the headline was "derelict mother forcing her kids to live in a car".

Since when have Reporter and Integrity been acceptable in the same sentance :pac:

02-06-2017 03:53PM

bucketybuck wrote: »

The journalist that used the word "forced" in that headline has not one ounce of integrity.

Exactly. The only who 'forced' those children, is the mother.

Im very sorry for her loss, terrible thing to happen to any young family, but come on, love, you had a house!!!!
Why on earth would anyone give up a roof over their heads is beyond me.

valoren · 02-06-2017 03:54PM

The use of her brother dying young, her mother being sick and her partner drowning is completely irrelevant and sickening exploitation of anyone having to listen to or read about this.

Richard needs to get the Luas to work. His father offered him a used Ford Mondeo, taxed and insured, for his daily commute.
"I didn't like the colour - it got me down - it was navy and I like red better". His dog died when he was 12.

His father offered to pay for a spray painting service but said there was back orders and it would need to be done next week.
"It got to the point where I couldn't bring myself to drive it, it being Navy and all - I now have to fork out for Luas tickets, it's getting me down"
His family cat got run over by a FORD when he was 15.

"I can't understand it, my father drives a red Audi - I can't understand it at all"
He had to flush his goldfish down the toilet when he was 18.

etc

_Whimsical_ · 02-06-2017 03:57PM

This is just so depressing because it really damages the credibility of the many genuine people who do face desperate need.

This woman needs a serious talking to. A "go home or we take the kids off you".
It's a 2 hour journey in the car, she could go to Cork every weekend.
She absolutely cannot be given in to. Next we'll have someone willing to kill one of their kids or threatening to jump off a bridge if they don't get the house they want.

Our current media has spawned a disgusting element in society of people willing to degrade themselves, humiliate their kids, neglect their kids for attention and manipulation purposes. They really do bare a big chunk of the blame for this sort of stunt.

Beta Ray Bill · 02-06-2017 03:57PM

These stories are getting all to common

The sense of entitlement these people have is outrageous.
They get a free house and financial support off the council or some other body.
But they aren't satisfied with that, they like the rest of us want More! except they're not prepared to work for it.

The whole system is a joke really.
A woman who had a house, is using her kids as leverage to get another house by forcing them to sleep in a Car outside a cemetery where the kids Dad is buried is nothing shot of disgusting. She's mentally scaring those kids for life.

Tusla should step in there and take kids from her care, cause clearly she isn't able to look after them.

And what the f*ck was she doing have 5 anyway without her own Home to raise them in?

My whole opinion on Social housing is this: There should be NONE!
Contraceptives should be free, so if you end up having a kid and have no home, that's on you... Not the state.
And if you display signs that you can't look after them, then the state should take them, and give them to a family that can - There's enough couples out there that can't even have kids for f*ck sake.

Those kids would have far better chance with a proper, responsible parents.
They haven't a chance with her.

Atlantic Dawn · 02-06-2017 03:59PM

At a guess she will be calling Liveline on Tuesday.

I might call in too, I'd prefer a house in Dalkey as there would be less traffic than I experience in my current house...so to speak.