Members of Sinn Fein, People Before Profit, trade unions and housing activists are staging the demonstration in response to the violent repossession of a property in Roscommon last week.

Two men have been released without charge after a subsequent assault on security guards at the same property in Strokestown.

A file will be prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Waterford Sinn Fein Councillor John Hearne says there are alternative ways of dealing with property disputes.

“It’s an absolute disgrace that the state and the gardaí… would facilitate thuggery against old people in Ireland,” he told WLR News. “There’s better ways of doing things. There’s plenty of arbitration, we do it in union disputes all the time. We should never have send in thugs to beat people out of their homes.”

He says it’s only poorer people who are met with violence.

“If you look at the way the very wealthy are being dealt with, they all got treated very kindly, soft-handed,” he said, “ordinary old people? Beat down the door and kick them into the street… It’s absolutely disgraceful.”