'I can hear the blocks cracking in the middle of the night': Donegal young person describes nightmare of growing up in a home with defective blocks
A young person who has grown up in a home with defective blocks in Donegal has spoken of the devastating impact it has had on her and her family. Video by Philomena McInaw.
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00:00But like my house has always had like a, I can't remember a stage where the house wasn't falling down and there's been different procedures that went through that was
00:11inconvenient to be mild about it, such as the outer leaf, which it saved a bit of time but it was ultimately useless and I end up
00:19every morning you'd wake up early in the morning, maybe 8 or 9, even earlier maybe, and just the sound of machinery and scaffolding going up
00:30you couldn't go outside to play, you just sat in the house and I was always sensitive to noise as well, I hated it, I hated it so much
00:38and then there's always that fear that, oh well, I could be in college, I could be doing anything else that has an impact on my life and I
00:48the house is coming down around me or getting it knocked down.
00:54There's plenty of people my age with houses affected by mica and their parents might be in denial about it, so they're sheltered from it, they're being
01:02sheltered from it and then once they come to terms with it, it's going to be 10 times worse for them, whereas for me, I've always known that my house
01:12was eventually going to have to come down, but for them it's going to be like a whole shock, I'm probably not going to have a house when I'm this age or that age
01:21and then the shame if I'm to build it back up again, to start from the beginning, their parents work, their parents might not rebuild it back at all
01:30there's counselors in the school which you could go to with anything, but there's not really a specific support set up for people with that certain situation
01:40there might be websites, I'm not sure, but not that I know of.
01:45It definitely would affect how well you sleep, because not only is it cold during the winter, it creaks and it cracks, you can almost hear the blocks cracking in the middle of the night
01:55and you'd be thinking, God I wonder if this is going to fall down around me some night, it gives you anxiety, because you think what if you wake up one night and the whole house is around your head
02:06I would be prone to anxiety because of that, I'd be more worried about situations than other people who haven't been affected by this was
02:14I used to get really sick at night worrying about things, and yeah the house falling down around you probably played a major part in that
02:24You would notice that I'd get sicker a lot during the colder months, I always had a wild chesty cough
02:31and the house would be cold in certain rooms, especially the rooms that you can notice more visible cracks in
02:38the rooms with the fires alright, but even with the heating on it would be a wee bit cold
02:45A lot of people my age wouldn't really, they'd be sheltered from it in a way that they can't relate to it
02:51they'd be like, oh that's horrible to go through that not knowing that they'd be going through a similar thing
03:03If you had siblings you could financially support each other, not just emotionally support each other in rebuilding your house
03:10But I'm on my own with my parents, not just money that's been lost here, it's the sentimental value of the house
03:18and that's something you can never get back