Evictions bring home to us the cynicism of Government

THE long-anticipated wave of repossessions has suddenly turned tidal: 8,000 cases are surging though the courts.

In Limerick, 219 actions were listed for yesterday, yet, in a grim political irony of our age, people were transfixed by the stand-off at Gorse Hill, which was part property porn, part semi-farce.

A developer and his wife, who have debts of €71m, refusing to leave their lavish, Italianate mansion, hardly made for the most sympathetic of characters, but the nation was drawn to their predicament.