‘Blocks like Weetabix:’ how mica scandal upended lives in Ireland

Residents living in buildings that have to be demolished due to defective blocks describe anguish

The house is going to fall. There is no doubt about that; it's just a matter of when," says Angeline Ruddy as she shows how her external walls are crumbling before her eyes.

She and her family, including three small children, have lived with the threat of the walls collapsing around them for the past 12 years in a slow-motion disaster that has blighted an estimated 20,000 homes in of one of the most picturesque parts of Ireland. Nobody knows just how many homes have been hit by the so-called mica disaster but there are reports that homes across other counties are now being identified as part of the catastrophe.