Real story behind family ‘forced’ to live in a Vectra
THE story of a Dublin woman who said she was forced to live in a car with her three children may have shocked politicians and homelessness commentators when it emerged in April 2014.
But it only ended up showing that not every story of homelessness is as straightforward as first reported.
Sabrina McMahon claimed she was forced out of her home in Co. Kildare – and back to the Dublin estate where she grew up – because ‘junkies’ took it over more than two years previously.
What she did not say, however, was that her departure came shortly after her partner was jailed for a bank robbery. She also failed to mention that, at around the same time, she had stopped paying her mortgage on the property.
In fact, she defaulted on the payments, owing more than €10,000.
After walking away from her Kildare home, she went back to live in Tallaght with friends and family.
According to the interviews she gave in April 2014, she decided to live in her Vauxhall Vectra because she didn’t want to impose on people any more.
But when asked by the Mail why she couldn’t stay at her mother’s house in Tallaght when her mother goes to stay in Wexford, Ms McMahon complained that her mother didn’t like Ms McMahon’s children. She added: ‘I don’t get along with my mother at all.’