On Halloween night the streets of Dublin were the scene of a spooky, unexplained phenomenon.
Thousands of people in costume descended on a major thoroughfare in the Irish capital to attend a parade featuring an award-winning theatre company famous for its ghoulish effigies.
But police were forced to disperse the O’Connell Street crowd after it emerged that a web page promoting the event was bogus and no parade had been organised.
The chaos was caused by an error by a single content writer working for the website myspirithalloween.com, erroneously telling readers to meet at Parnell Square at 7pm. The listing promised a “showstopper” experience at which the Galway-based performing arts company Macnas would star. It said the festivities would culminate at 9pm at the city’s