Video footage from O'Connell Street reveals a large crowd of people gathered for the non-existent parade, with buses struggling to navigate through(Image: Sam Boal/Collins Photos)

'It was not a hoax.' 'Highly embarrassed' website apologises for promoting Dublin fake Halloween parade

by · Irish Mirror

A website which promised a non-existent Halloween parade in Dublin - prompting thousands to line the streets - has apologised, but insisted: “It was not a hoax.”

Crowds flocked to O’Connell St in the city centre expecting to see a procession by Macnas at 7pm on Thursday, causing traffic and Luas delays. They only began to disperse an hour later when Gardaí announced that the event was not happening.

The public had been drawn by a widely-shared article published on a website called myspirithalloween.com, which lists details of hundreds of Halloween-themed events happening all over the world.

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Initially, it was believed that the site had pulled a hoax, but Pakistan-based site operator Nazir Ali insisted that the article had been a simple mistake. He told the Irish Times that one of his content creators, searching for information about Dublin, had come across references to a previous Halloween parade, assumed it would happen this year and then published the same details.

Ali said: “It was our mistake and we should have doubled checked it to make sure it was happening. But newspapers are reporting that we posted it intentionally and this is very, very wrong.

The pandemonium broke out after a website named My Spirit Halloween falsely advertised a Macnas Halloween Parade from 7pm to 9pm on Halloween night(Image: Sam Boal/Collins Photos)
Thousands of people had turned up to see a Halloween parade which turned out to be fake(Image: Sam Boal/Collins Photos)

“If we had heard before the day that the parade was not going to happen we would have removed it but no one alerted us. It was a mistake. Do you think we would do all this SEO for a joke? We are highly embarrassed and highly depressed, and very sorry.”

Gardaí, who were forced to go on social media and alert people there was no parade, are not investigating the matter as it is not being treated as a criminal offence.

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