Wexford woman shares story after recently becoming homeless with 6-year-old son

A Wexford woman, along with her six-year-old son, has recently became homeless…

Wexford town woman Sinead Murphy, along with her six-year-old son Killian, are now officially homeless. Both Sinead and her son were living in a rental property, but after 3.5 years of paying rent at the property, the landlord has told them that the property is now needed for personal use.

“We are 2 Irish citizens born and reared in Ireland. We’ve never been in trouble with the law and always following the rules and being completely honest in every aspect of our lives, yet this is where we have ended up,” she said.

As expected, one of the first things that Sinead did was ask for help. She sought the help of agencies and Councils.

“I searched high and low for private properties from applying with agencies who wouldn’t even look at me twice. Not one viewing with them in months. I went to the council and went to every Wexford Councillor I could think of in Wexford with no one even taking my situation serious,” she said.

To the credit of the Council, they did set her up with two available positions. One was a B&B in Courtown, while the other was a B&B in New Ross. However, as a Wexford town woman, Sinead claims that these places are not suitable for various reasons:

“It absolutely kills me that the only thing I have been offered today is a B&B in Courtown or New Ross to sleep in with my little boy. Accepting this offer also means we have to stick to a curfew, feeling like prisoners.”

Sinead, noting that “I am not racist”, was quick to mention to situation with foreign nationals. In contrast, she feels like she is being hard-done by when compared with them.

“Why am I seeing every foreigner walk into this country and receiving new houses, properties, Ipas centres in our country before our own people? Why are we suffering.

“I am not racist before anyone starts. I’m just stating that the people born and raised in this country – having paid taxes their whole lives to our government – should surely be a priority when it comes to homelessness? Stop taking people in if we do not have enough room for the Irish themselves for God sake,” Sinead said about the Irish Government’s policy.

For Sinead, she said that she remains “sick to her stomach” regarding her situation – and that overall, she would have been better off staying in Australia as opposed to coming back home to Ireland.

Sinead is not the only member of the public to feel like this. According to the Central Statistics Office, there were 15,286 people homeless in Ireland as of January 2025. Compared with 2015 – 10 years ago – it tells its own story. In January 2015, there were 3805 people homeless in Ireland.

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