A pensioner and his wife are evicted from their multi-million euro home in one of the Ireland's most exclusive neighbourhoods.
Footage taken by a neighbour and posted online shows Irish police and baliffs removing Asta Kelly, 63 and her husband Brendan, 71 from their five-bedroom house in St Matthias Wood, Killiney, Co Dublin.
The couple were evicted on Wednesday after falling behind on mortgage payments, believed to total around €2 million, to the Anglo Irish Bank.
Neighbours looked on in horror as the couple, who have lived in the luxury house for eight years, were brought screaming from their home after bailiffs reportedly forced their way through the front door with a crowbar.
Mr and Mrs Kelly then refused to leave the front driveway of their home, but were eventually manhandled off the property by bailiffs as police prevented bystanders attempts to intervene.
The elderly couple, who have a portfolio of rental properties, are now camped outside the house for which they reportedly paid €3.4 million and is now on the market for €2.2 million.
After the eviction, Mr Kelly told Irish media that he had previously attempted to renegotiate their mortgage with their bank, and that the couple wanted to regain entry to their home.
"I want to get back into my house. My office is there. I can't work…We have no clothes. We have been put out of our family home."I talked to (the bank the day before yesterday) and asked them to postpone the eviction…Finances have somewhat improved in the last two or three weeks. They refused to postpone it."
The video has prompted much consternation in Ireland with protests at the Dublin sheriff's office and the country's deputy prime minister calling the scenes "distressing".
However, the Kellys' plight has been looked upon less sympathetically by others who feel little pity for the asset-rich couple who claim lease agreements prevent them from moving into one of their other properties.
Having previously run a successful textile business in northern Germany, the pair sold up and invested their money in the Irish property market before the country's economy crashed in 2008.
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