A woman who pleaded guilty to ten counts of neglecting her five children has been jailed for 18 months.
The 34-year-old woman, who cannot be named, was sentenced to four years imprisonment by Judge Martin Nolan at the Circuit Criminal Court, but he suspended all but 18 months of the term.
He said her children had been "neglected to the point of cruelty", adding they were "ill-fed, ill-clothed and ill-taken care of".
He said any person encountering these children would have known they were neglected. "She had a responsibility to mind them, she didn't", he said.
The Judge went on to say she should have known she had responsibility as a mother to her children.
"She disregarded this sacred duty," he said.
The court previously heard in September 2007, when the children were put under the care of the Health Safety Executive after an emergency care order, officials noted her eight and four-year-old daughters wore only shirts and ankle socks while the mother was warmly dressed in a pink top and a Playboy bunny cap.
The younger girl was wearing soiled underwear that had not been changed for some time.
The woman's eldest son, then aged 11, ate chips in the garda station that night while stuffing more into his pockets.
His younger 10-year-old brother wore trousers half way up his legs, had no socks, no underwear and had holes in his runners.
All the children were smelly and unwashed and the girl's foster mother later reported that their hair was "a different colour blonde" after she washed it.
The eldest boy is now 15-years-old and is living in a special care unit outside of Ireland.
When he first went into care he had to live in an isolated unit for four years because he was not deemed suitable to be in the company of other children or live with a family.
Judge Nolan said he took into account that their mother "seemed to be a person who has problems".
The court had previously heard the children's father had already been convicted on neglect of children charges, plus sexual abuse and rape offences.
One of his previous convictions included the abduction of the children's mother in the UK when she was just 14 years old.
The couple married after her 18th birthday and later moved to Ireland.
No main addresses or regions pertaining to any of those involved in this case can be published.
