I am back living with my wife and children
Absentee dad is out of jail on bail and back with homeless mum of seven
THE husband of homeless mother-of-seven Margaret Cash is living with his wife in their newly provided emergency accommodation.
John McCarthy, 33, is the father of Margaret Cash’s seven children. He was released from Cloverhill Prison on bail on Friday, the same day the family moved into new emergency accommodation in Drumcondra, Dublin.
Mr McCarthy was thought to be estranged from his family in recent times with Ms Cash telling the Irish Mail on Sunday that Mr McCarthy was no longer in her life in the days after pictures of their children – aged between one and 11 – sleeping on hard plastic chairs in Tallaght Garda Station went viral.
But Mr McCarthy confirmed yesterday he is back in the family home. ‘Yes, I’m staying with her,’
‘The kids are very happy... he can help’
he told the MoS. Ms Cash, 28, said yesterday that her husband was released from prison on Friday and was now living with the family again.
She told the MoS: ‘John was just released from prison yesterday. He was only released yesterday so I wasn’t in a position to tell anybody because he’d only been released and the kids were only after seeing their dad. At least give us a week of privacy.’
Previously she had said that her family circumstances were private. ‘That’s something that I don’t feel is anybody’s business on social media or anywhere else. All there is to know is that he’s not in the picture, he’s not helping, he’s not around,’ she said.
The mother of seven is happy to have her husband back with her to help look after the children.
‘The kids are very happy to have him home and it helps, you know what I mean. It’s very hard when you’re on your own with seven kids, so he can help.’
Ms Cash is happy with her new accommodation but is frustrated about not knowing how long she will be there for.
‘It’s not an apartment. Well it is and it isn’t, it’s out the back of a B&B, it’s like a little bedsit, onebedroom kind of bedsit thing but it’s nice. Yeah, it is nice.
‘No they haven’t said yet, there’s no time on it so I don’t know [how long we will be here for]. Well the kids are happy to have a roof over their heads, anything is better than a Garda station. The only thing that I really have an issue of is really not knowing how long we’re going to be here, should I get the kids into school here in Drumcondra or how would I get them to Tallaght? It’s not going to happen so, like, I kind of just need to know if I’m going to be here or not.’
Mr McCarthy confirmed he is staying with his family and spoke about his reasons for being an absentee father. ‘We got a place yeah, it’s actually grand, it’s a lovely place, yeah. The kids are happy and Margaret’s happy, so that’s the main thing, isn’t it?
‘Yes, because to be honest with you I was in a bad place. I was on the streets meself and stuff like that so I kind of stayed away from my family because everything went upside down for me.’
Ms Cash and her children were initially given emergency accommodation in Parnell Street on a onemonth’s trial basis. However, after what was described as a ‘genuine mix up’ between the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive and the landlord new accommodation was required.
Ms Cash has been on the social housing waiting list for 11 years and became homeless after the private rental accommodation she was staying in was repossessed earlier this year.
‘Everything went upside down for me’