Kerryman Ray Flavin’s wife Patricia died of a heart attack last January, leaving behind her husband and five children Aoife, 17, Caoimhe, 11, Oisin, 6, and four-year-old twins Fiachra and Bronagh.

This came after the family had been served with an eviction notice on their Ballybunion home.

The case was raised in the Dáil this week by Sinn Féin TD Martin Ferris, for Kerry North–West Limerick.

“In January of this year, a woman by the name of Trish Flavin died suddenly, leaving five children. I would argue and her husband would argue very strongly that this was a consequence of them being victim of the tracker mortgage scandal,” Mr Ferris said.

“In 2016, they received an eviction notice, a repossession from Bank of Ireland [BoI]. On February 14, this year, they received an apology from the bank [BoI] yet they continued to proceed with the repossession,” he added.

As the case was made public, two friends of Mr Flavin set up a GoFundMe page to raise funds for the family.

After tens of thousands of euro began flooding in over the course of 48 hours, his friends decided to raise the target to €120,000 — the value of the family’s mortgage.

“I can’t get over the support. It would make you proud to call yourself an Irishman,” Mr Flavin told the Irish Examiner last night.

“It’s a weight off your shoulders. I was having sleepless nights for sure. It’s hard to put into words what that’s like, you can’t sleep or focus on anything.

“One of my daughters said to me this week: ‘Dad, how come you’re so happy? You’re back to normal’,” Mr Flavin said.

The bus driver described the financial support from strangers, which came in the form of more than 2,000 donations, as “mindblowing”.

“It’s just mindblowing the support that has been given to us. It’s indescribable. I can’t put into words how grateful we are,” he said.

A spokesman for BoI last night said: “As this is an ongoing legal matter which is currently before the High Court, Bank of Ireland cannot comment.”