'We have no escape'

A mother of six fears she and her 11-year-old daughter “will die” if a fire were to break out in their temporary accommodation, due to inadequate escape routes available.

Marie O’Rourke and her family hit headlines almost four months ago following a blaze at their former Breffni Terrace home in the early hours of January 17 and they had to be evacuated.

The family are now residing in what she describes as a “box” at Lower Swellan, where they’ve been living since mid-February.

Safety

Marie says she has asked the council to send out a health and safety inspector to look at the two-bed bungalow she shares with three of her children. She concedes that while more suitable temporary accommodation was offered in Dundalk, the family had to turn it down for reasons including schooling.

As Marie speaks, she and her daughter Maisey edge their way around the house, side-stepping around to show The Anglo-Celt their current living space. The front door opens without obstruction, spilling light into their home on what is a glorious May day.

But upon entering the hallway there are pieces of bedroom furniture stacked on top of each other. Some contain clothes for the entire family. This narrow space also doubles as a dressing room for Maisey (11), whose teddy bears sit on a double bed in the room on the first left. She shares this bed with her mum, and while neither have much living space, Marie’s main concern is that the window opens inwards about four centimetres before it is obstructed by the bed’s headboard.

“It’s terrible, I can’t sleep at night. We have no escape,” she says, demonstrating the short extent to which bedroom window does open to.

“Obviously the fear of God is in me because of our last fire. We have no escape out of here,” she reiterates. “If anything happens here, me and my daughter will die,” Marie fears, adding that she feels the council is “ignoring” her concerns.

“If it [fire] started in the hall say, we have no way out of the bedroom.”

Maire says she has requested that the council send out a health and safety inspector but as yet “nobody has come out”.

It could be at a least a month, Marie has been told, before someone is available to assess the family’s situation.

Yet in the meantime Marie worries about her children’s mental health and her own.

“There’s no space and it’s not good for her mental health,” Marie says of her daughter Maisey. “She can’t have her friends over anymore; she can’t have anything. She’s almost twelve and she’s going through her own little girly problems. She doesn’t need to be stuck in a room with her mammy. She wants to go home; she misses her friends coming over. She’s embarrassed I think.”

Marie own medication has been “upped” recently as she too struggles to cope within these confines.

Her 17-year-old son Tyler meanwhile, who has a form of autism and “problems” with his motor skills, shares a bedroom with his 14-year-old brother MJ.

“Tyler’s lost, he has no space to do anything. Tyler usually would have had to have his own space because he runs up and down and makes sounds and stuff. Here he can’t so we find him running up and down outside because he’s sharing a room with his brother.”

Struggles

Their current living conditions, Marie states, are having a “really, really bad effect” on Tyler. He is “falling behind” in his final year at Breifne College according to his tutor, says marie, and is “not himself.”

“He has lost a lot of weight as well. I just fear if they don’t get us out of here and into proper accommodation that there’s going to be a very bad outcome. I’ll blame Cavan County Council if anything happens to my children,” she asserts, adding that the local authority doesn’t seem to care.

“We lost everything and it was due to an electrical fault,” she says. “Mentally we have to get out of here, it’s not fair.”

Moving out to the kitchen/sitting room area, both of which are combined, Marie tells the Celt how her family cannot have dinner together, while cooking is also a challenge due to what little space is available.

Marie has only one press for condiments and another “make-shift” cupboard on top of which the microwave, air fryer and grill are stacked.

“Everything stacked on top of each other,” she points.

“We can use two chairs so we can’t even all sit at the table.”

The family have also had to take a door away in order to fit a couch. Meanwhile the back door is hindered from opening fully.

“I don’t understand why they’re not sending health and safety out,” she repeats.

The O’Rourke’s were offered emergency accommodation in Dundalk and elsewhere “outside Cavan”, however they “couldn’t go” as Marie also must care for her disabled son who lives in Cavan Town.

Her children are attending school in Cavan, and Marie herself doesn’t drive.

“Then they offered me here. They never showed it to me, they just brought me down to sign a form and told me it was a two-bedroom house, big house, and that I was going to be moved here.”

Come March, Marie began ringing the council to enquire about her former Breffni Terrace home.

Repairs

Told she was a “priority”, Marie still does not know what stage the repairs are at.

“I don’t know what’s going on,” she says, explaining that the council informed her their current accommodation is “temporary”.

The mum of six outlines what she would like to see happen.

“I’d like to see us get a three-bedroom house in Cavan Town. They know I can’t move out of Cavan town because I have a 25-year-old paralysed son in Cavan town. My three kids go to school in Cavan Town and I don’t drive.”

Asked if she believes Cavan County Council are trying their best, Marie replies “no”.

Continuing, she adds her opinion that the local authority don’t appear to care about Maisey’s mental health or her son’s motor problems.

“I just fear what’s going to happen to them in the future.”

Asked for a comment, a spokesperson for Cavan County Council said they “cannot comment on individual cases.”