I don’t know where we will sleep tomorrow

A MOTHER does not know where she and her seven children are going to sleep tomorrow night.

Homeless mother-ofseven Margaret Cash, shocked the nation this week when she posted a picture online of five of her children sleeping in Tallaght Garda Station, because they had nowhere else to go.

Ms Cash has been on the housing waiting list for 11 years and became homeless in September, after the private rental accommodation she was staying in was repossessed.

Speaking to the Irish Mail on Sunday yesterday, she criticised Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy for going on holidays when there was a homelessness crisis.

‘It’s great to be able to go on holidays and have a big home to come back to. What about the poor people who have nowhere to go – what about us? Not just me, not just my children, all the homeless kids in Ireland – what about them?’ she asked.

Ms Cash married the father of her seven children – who is now estranged – when she was aged 15 and gave birth to her first child when she was aged 17.

‘That’s something that I don’t feel is anybody’s business. All there is to know is that he [her husband] is not in the picture. He’s not helping – he’s not around,’ she said.

‘I didn’t do this to get publicity.

‘I did this so society would know there’s an awful lot of homeless people and kids having to do this.’

Ms Cash and her family secured temporary accommodation with the help of the charity Inner City Helping Homeless, which assists homeless people in the capital. However, by tomorrow night she and her children will need to find somewhere else to stay.

‘Last night was all right. We had a good sleep and the kids were great. It’s not knowing what’s going to happen on Monday, that’s the problem.’

Ms Cash was critical of the backlash that her story has received on social media.

‘There’s a lot of negativity online,’ she said, ‘but I haven’t even been looking at it. I’ve just had friends ringing me telling me, “Listen, don’t even bother going online.” I didn’t do this to get famous. I didn’t post those pictures on Facebook knowing that all this was going to happen.

‘I posted them for my friends and family to see what I was actually going through and maybe that some sort of a TD would help me.

‘It was help I was looking for. I wasn’t looking for people judging me and criticising me. It’s not what I wanted.

‘It’s not what I need. My life is already hard enough and I don’t need this I don’t need people judging me and criticising me and telling me that I should be ashamed.

‘I know that I should be ashamed… I’m already ashamed. Do you think I want that for my kids? But what can I do when the Government won’t help me? Nobody wants to help me.’