A TINY caravan bought with the money she had saved for her daughter’s confirmation is all that stands between Wendy Murphy and the elements.

The 27-year-old mother contacted The Southern Star because near-constant rain had seeped through the walls, saturating the place where she and her ten-year-old daughter slept.

Forced to leave a relative’s local authority home due to chronic over-crowding, Wendy spent €230 for two nights B&B in Clonakilty while pleading with the local authority’s housing department for emergency accommodation.

Wendy said she was refused, so instead of paying for a third night she took the €200 that she had managed to set aside for her daughter’s confirmation in April and bought a caravan in Ballineen.

She said she was desperate to put a roof over the head of her daughter who is autistic, and has ADHD and asthma. Wendy said she suffers from depression and anxiety and her current situation has left her stressed out of her mind.

An extended family member helped the mother and daughter move the ramshackle caravan onto a site at Marsh Road in Skibbereen earlier this month. The site is significant to Wendy because her family has lived there for generations.

Her grandparents had a house there, and their children including Wendy’s late father Philip (who was better known locally as ‘Wendy’ O’Driscoll) stayed in one of two mobile homes until his untimely death.

The fact that Philip died in the mobile home means Wendy will not live there, but she said she would happily stay in a different mobile home on the same site.

The only relative still living at Marsh Road is Wendy’s uncle Johnny who allows her to fill her water jars every morning. But for the rest of the time, Wendy is left to her own devices.

‘I have no idea how I am going to gather this money back up and buy her clothes and pay for her day out,’ said Wendy before turning her attention to the other problems, like the rotting floorboards; the mould at the end of the bed, and the leaking roof.

‘I have no running water here, and no way of cooking, but I do have a generator for charging my phone and running a small little heater,’ she said.

But with the cost of running the generator spiralling, Wendy is hoping the West Cork Traveller Centre in Clonakilty will apply to St Vincent de Paul in Cork city for some emergency funds on her behalf.

To offset recent icy conditions, Wendy said she had to leave the heater on the whole night to keep her child warm.  ‘It costs €30 to fill the generator and if you leave it on overnight it’s gone by morning,’ she said.

Within 24 hours of arriving on site, Wendy found a letter from the local authority’s housing department pinned to her door warning her that she was trespassing on local authority-owned land.

The letter from County Hall said failure to leave the site within seven days would result in circuit court proceedings, the cost of which would have to be borne by her.

‘They told me I have to get going, but I have nowhere to go, so I am not budging,’ said Wendy who is looking for either emergency accommodation, local authority housing, or an improved mobile home.

‘I am looking for the council to give me some bit of help, which they are refusing to do at the moment. I am not asking for a mansion to be put in here for me or for a new house.’

She referenced the Housing (Traveller Accommodation) Act, 1998, which states that each housing authority must prepare and adopt a five-year traveller accommodation plan.

‘The council has a good bit of travelling funding that they get every year,’ said Wendy​. ‘What is it being spent on?

‘I’m asking, God, please just give me a mobile home that has no mould; that has water for my child to wash; and heating.’

Cork County Council was contacted for comment.

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