Irelands legal system is flawed

This is a known issue but i’ve recently in the last three years have to put up with it first hand and realise how sickening it feels. Really sorry for the long text i got into a rant 🫡

My mother has always had an issue with drink and i started to get the brunt of it when i was around 10. As soon as i was done school at 3 she would pick me up (if she didn’t have someone else do it) and would go back to her usual spot in the sitting room and fall asleep on the couch. Da was usually working late and wouldn’t be home but when he was i could see how thick he would get that nothing was done around the house all day. So being the child who didn’t want any conflict in the house i began cleaning and putting on dinners when i got home from school so he would believe she wasn’t on the couch all day.

She used to use plastic bottles and put wine in them so i would either burn them or hide them so my father didn’t suspect anything. When i was around 12 i brought it up with my dad because i really started to worry, nothing really came out of it but at least he was aware. From here onwards it got worse.

The marriage was going downhill. They tried counselling but it’s safe to say you can’t get a word in when you are trying to speak to a pathological liar. She went to rehab when i was 14-15 and told me it was so she could “prove to everyone” she could do it. Immediately wrong because she wasn’t doing it for herself. She came back around Christmas time and everything was worse. Money was stolen from me. She drank more than ever and physical abuse started. My dad eventually moved out to my aunts house leaving me and my 2 sisters with her. Thankfully they weren’t hurt physically but still, Shit move. I had recorded videos and pictures of bruises on my arms. Sound recordings of the attacks and told many counsellors and Tusla members. Gaurds came to the house numerous times but nothing happened. I moved out with my sisters from my own home out of our free will. I called the guards with evidence and filled a report against her however they told me (17 at the time) it was “too late” to take action against her. The only reason it was too late was because they didn’t call me in for 6 months.

To sum it up i’m doing my leaving cert and have little contact with her. Beyond the drink i have discovered she is not a good person and has many manipulative traits. She moved out of the house last year but has threatened recently to sell the house in the divorce because “she needs to move on”. There has been many days in court with her but i was never heard or taken seriously which i don’t understand when i have MULTIPLE pieces of evidence that i was abused terribly. I have said many times and will say it again, if my mother was a man, she would be behind bars. she wouldn’t be allowed to contact me or my siblings with what she has done to us and i am sick of people defending her because she’s a woman. As a woman myself i could never ever think of hurting anyone like that let alone my own children. having recently turned legal drinking age i get nervous on nights out when i see drunk people. my body goes into fight or flight when i just want to enjoy a night with my friends. I have gone to multiple therapists but this is going to affect me for life and i am disgusted that nothing has been done.