The Children's Court: The girl clasped her hands together as if in prayer, pleading with her mother to take her home, writes Carl O'Brien.
"All I want to do is to go home," she wailed. "I was stupid, I know... I just want to go home."
The 17-year-old's bruised and imploring eyes were fixed on her mother who sat in sombre silence just a few feet away.
"I had to spend yesterday in the cell. Please give me one last chance... I promise you I'll change. I will. I promise it this time."
She had come before the court for the first time last February after allegedly assaulting her brother, sister and mother at home and threatening them with a knife. Gardaí at the time said she appeared to be on a cocktail of prescription drugs and alcohol.
Now, after a number of other alleged assaults, the girl was back in court, looking older and more distressed than before.
Her mother, dressed in a fleece jacket and jeans, sat quietly holding her handbag tightly.
"I feel it's all a vicious circle," her mother said slowly and deliberately. "I don't feel jail is the answer... I'm absolutely terrified to have her at home. Things are very tough and very stressed."
The girl's solicitor, Ms Sarah Molloy, said the charges facing the girl were being used as a vehicle to try and provide help for her.
While the girl spent a number of days in a psychiatric hospital, all the family received was a four-line response saying she did not appear to have psychiatric problems.
"Unfortunately that doesn't help her or her mother in dealing with her problems," Ms Molloy said.
As Judge Angela Ní Chondúin considered her words, the girl pleaded once again not to be sent back to jail.
"I hadn't been causing trouble at home before that night. It was over something my brother said to me. I had to spend yesterday in the cell... please give me one last chance."
"I don't know if I can believe you," her mother said stonily.
"I promise I'll change. I will," the girl said.
"You did this the other night," her mother answered.
"I'll go off drink... I'll show I can change."
Judge Ní Chondúin said she understood the mother's reluctance to take her daughter home, but the only alternative was an out-of-hours service.
"She needs someone to keep an eye on her... I can understand that her mother has to live with a nightmare at home... it's a horrible situation."
Judge Ní Chondúin adjourned the case while the girl's solicitor checked the availability of an out-of-hours bed. "Please! Please!" the girl said insistently to her mother, who avoided looking her in the eye.
When the case resumed the girl had stopped crying and Ms Molloy said the mother had agreed to give her daughter one last chance at home.
Judge Ní Chondúin agreed with the solicitor's suggestion that a case conference be held with the the family and the probation service.
"I can see she's going downhill. She has declined since I saw her last. She has a fine black eye today. If her mother can't cope, she will go back into custody."
The judge signed the bail conditions, which included a curfew, abstention from alcohol, as the girl bit her varnished nails and stared at the ground.
The mother and daughter then got up and walked quietly out of the room. Outside, in the empty landing of the Children's Court, they sat in silence on a wooden bench, waiting for the bail bond to be stamped.