Several homes have been repossessed at a sitting of Limerick Circuit Court.
Banks and other lending institutions brought 219 applications for possession of family homes.
The court heard details of marital breakdown, unemployment and financial loss.
Father-of-two Niall Mulligan, originally from Dublin, could no longer pay his mortgage after he lost his job in the building trade.
"I was in the building trade all my life, and it left me without any wages," he said.
"She couldn't handle me being at home, and no money in the house and all that kind of stuff.
"I've come out of school and worked so hard in the building trade and trying to get a mortgage and going through all the troubles to get a mortgage in the first place, then for it all just to be taken away."