A house auction in Co Mayo was abandoned yesterday when the householder disrupted proceedings. Mr Anthony O'Malley shouted abuse and insults at the auctioneers while repeatedly claiming the auction was illegal.
Mr O'Malley, his wife, and children were evicted from their home in March following a court ruling granting possession to Irish Nationwide Building Society.
The house at Ballatellan, Murrisk, about five miles outside Westport, was expected to fetch £150,000.
Mr O'Malley, who has been working as a taxi-driver in Westport since the eviction, was accompanied by supporters, some of whom also challenged the auctioneers' right to sell or claim ownership of the property.
Legal action in the dispute over ownership lasted eight years before concluding in the repossession order.
Mr O'Malley previously staged a hunger strike for 13 days in Mountjoy as a result of imprisonment for contempt of court.
When the contents were being taken away by a removal firm, he and his wife staged an all-day picket outside their former home.
Mr Shane Flanagan, auctioneer with selling agents GHQ Ltd, O'Connell Street, Sligo, said the auction would have to be abandoned after 20 minutes of mayhem in the auction room in the Travellers Friend Hotel, Castlebar, yesterday.
He said Mr O'Malley had made it impossible for him to continue and he should be ashamed of himself for such behaviour.
A former neighbour of the O'Malleys said they ought to be ashamed of themselves for throwing an innocent man and his family out on the street.
A Garda presence which had been maintained outside the hotel before the auction was gone by this time.
Interested buyers intent on making a bid withdrew when the disruption began.
One man said he had travelled 180 miles to make a bid and described the auction as a mess. Nobody seemed to know who owned the property, he added.
Ms Muriel McCormack, a solicitor operating on behalf of Irish Nationwide, confirmed that there was one clause in the conditions of sale which had still to be ratified.
If this did not happen before December 31st, 1998, a contract of sale could not be completed by the society, she said.
The auctioneers and their representatives apologised to people who had attended the auction to bid on the property. They recommended that all interested buyers contact the selling agents directly.