Beautiful

Hello there.

Yes, the HSE provides health and social services to everyone living in Ireland. It stands for 'Health Service Executive' and its services encompass Children and Family Services, including Child Health and Child Protection services. Unfortunately, these services are currently inadequate and failing some of the most vulnerable people in our society.

Regarding the boy's parents...

The gardai can't bring a case against the husband without the wife's evidence. Often women do not come forward / cooperate as they are aware that even if their husband gets sent down, his jail period will only be one or two months. Once he gets out, he can return to the home to confront her and her actions (turning him in). In worst case scenarios, this confrontation results in him losing his temper and 'finishing the job' so to speak.

This is why cases often arise where woman are effectively intimidated and pressurized into giving evidence by gardai. However, once a woman comes forward, there are still a number of problems facing her. Such as what happens next. If a woman asks for a barring order against her husband, there is no guarantee that he won't break it - especially since orders such as the above tend to be regarded by abusive husbands as provocation. Again, worst case scenario: The husband is a heavy drinker / drug user. He sees the order as the 'end of the world'. It occurs to him, while in this addled state, that there is no longer anything to live for. He breaks into the home at night, kills the wife, the child /children and then himself.

That is why when women report husbands the home is generally no longer regarded by them as safe and they move into women's shelters. However, these places usually entail another type of hell as they are overcrowded, rundown and low in resources. Living with a gaggle of other women and children - all suffering various emotional problems and sometimes drug addictions - is not fun.

So, sadly, most women just put up with domestic abuse and most guards do not press them to give evidence as the options available to battered women in Ireland are very limited indeed.

Another problem within the system:

Wives who leave children behind when forced to flee the marital home due to domestic violence often do not obtain enough assistance to rent a house and so lose custody of their children to their husband. As you can imagine, that is not a risk most women are willing to take. Further difficulties may then arise in trying to acquire a deposit for a house if the Community Welfare officer will only provide an allowance towards rent. And so it goes on. The system is not set up appropriately at all and (as you can probably tell) it makes me terribly angry!