Homeless mum abused after her children had to sleep in police station

Margaret Cash and her sons were forced to sleep on police station chairs as they had nowhere else to turn. Photo / Inner City Helping Homeless

A homeless mother who was forced to send her seven children to the police station to sleep so they would have a roof over their head has been viciously abused online.

Margaret Cash, who has been on the housing list for 11 years, said she and her family have been subjected to horrific personal messages after news broke that her young family slept over at a Dublin police station.

Images of Margaret's six sons, aged between 1 and 11, sleeping on chairs at the station went viral, highlighting Ireland's homelessness crisis.

Anthony Flynn from Inner City Helping Homeless shared the photos on social media, writing: "This is what this country has succumbed to, this is how homeless services are treating our children."

But the 28-year-old mother has been asked how she's in poverty but can afford "big piss ups" after she posted a photo of a box of beer.

Others took aim a photo of her daughter in a communion dress, with many making cruel comments suggesting the photo showed "anything but poverty".

Cash told the Irish Sun the comments have personally impacted her and that they've been blown well out of proportion.

"There is an awful lot of people who think they know it all, they don't even know me, they know nothing about me.

"They're trying to judge me when they don't know what it's like being in this situation. 'I was sitting in a friend's house, having a few drinks. Just sitting there. What I did was I just took a picture of a box of beer, that was it, it was just a box of beer.

"I had a few bottles of beer. The abuse is disgraceful."

Margaret Cash has told how online trolls have subjected her to vile abuse. Photo / Inner City Helping Homeless.

The family was forced to turn to the police station after a charity could not find beds for them for the night.

Photos showed the children, some wearing their school uniforms, lying on police station chairs without blankets.

Cash explained her family has been homeless for a year after the home she was previously renting was repossessed. They are currently on the housing waiting list.

Despite the social media abuse Cash said she'd tried her best to provide accommodation for her family, revealing she bought a caravan to keep a roof over her family.

But the caravan move has proved unsuccessful after authorities told Cash they wouldn't let her put the caravan on the side of the road.

"I bought a caravan when I first became homeless, in the month of September. Most of my family help me pay for it," she told the Irish Sun.

"I moved into the caravan in Tallaght but the Garda were moving us round from one place to another place.

"The guards wouldn't let us stay anywhere. We were moving from camp to camp, we were staying on the side of the road, and they were telling us to move off everywhere that we went.

"Eventually I ended up getting arrested, down in the caravan and I got done for breaking and entering to an abandoned place and putting a caravan in."

Cash believes she should have been allowed to stay in the caravan until there was a permanent solution.

Following the image of her children sleeping at the police station, Cash has been granted temporary accommodation.

The mother-of-seven now faces being on the street again this week.

"I have nowhere to live come Monday and I am having to deal with this."