Saturday, November 19, 2016
Serving Cork for 120 years
Pick the right hedge
Olive Ryan’s gardening column: P23
My girlfriend needs space Our weekly love advice column: P27
Edition No: 36371
RRP: €1.50
Club Zone Focus on Over the Hill Cycling Club: P10 & 11
Mum’s plea for help Mother and young kids share box room
Denis McCarthy obituary Page 15
■ Audrey Ellard Walsh A BALLINCOLLIG mother, who is forced to share a box room with her two children, has made an emotional appeal for a house following a six-year wait for accommodation.
Michelle Twomey with her children, Caitlin and Jake. Michelle is on the housing waiting list for six years. Picture: Dan Linehan
WEATHER TONIGHT L: 4º
Cloudy
9 770332 478167 46
19.11.2016 Recommended retail price € 1.50
A symbol of the housing crisis, mother-of-two Michelle Twomey lives with her young children, her parents and her two adult brothers in a three-bed house in the town. She sleeps in a small box room with her fiveyear-old daughter and 19-month-old son. The room has nowhere near the space required to carry out the occupational therapies that her little girl desperately needs. Caitlin, who is non-verbal and unable to walk, requires regular specialist therapies and seizure medication. Michelle has given up work to devote herself to Caitlin’s 24-hour needs and has spent thousands of euro from her carer’s allowance on private care in an effort to give her little girl the best start in life. ■ Continued on Page 4.
Wedding of the week: P28