Housing row mother starts hunger strike

A mother of five was beginning a hunger strike in her West Dublin home today to force her local council to move her to a safer neighbourhood.

Tallaght cleaner Aisling Bent claims that she and her children have been systematically targeted by thugs in the Glenshane Estate where they have lived for the past five years.

The separated 36 year old claims her car was stolen, another car was torched, the telephone and TV wires were cut and every window on the front of the house has been broken with bricks or smeared with graffiti.

Ms Bent is 25th on a South Dublin Co Council housing transfer list and planned to begin the hunger strike at 6am in a bid to get quicker access to better housing.

“As a mother, it is my duty to protect my kids and but I cannot guarantee them that anymore,” she said today.

“This is my last opportunity to force the council to get me a house in a safer area.”

Ms Bent, whose children are aged between 18 and eight, previously staged a recent one-week protest outside the council’s offices on the same issue.