Dublin's Halloween events are set to be cancelled or significantly curtailed because of Covid-19.
The usual parades, funfairs, and fireworks displays are expected to be replaced by virtual festivals, environmental initiatives or community engagement projects according to the Irish Times.
It's down to concerns about the ability of Dublin city council to enforce public health guidelines.
Organised activities have helped reduce the number of illegal bonfires in the city around October 31st.
Council management has acknowledged cancelling events could lead to a return of illegal bonfires.
The council said it's made this decision now as events of this size and scale take a significant amount of time and effort to organise.
The local authority say it is "highly unlikely that we will be in a position to have large scale mass attendance events by the end of October."
Fireworks
Meanwhile a councillor says communities across Dublin are being terrorised by fireworks being constantly let off.
Gardaí are being asked to step up efforts to tackle the use of bangers, which usually becomes a problem closer to Halloween.
Sinn Féin representative for the Ballyfermot-Drimnagh area, Daithí Doolan, says it will get out of hand if nothing is done;
"What I see happening is gangs of people, predominately young people, using fireworks as a method not to celebrate but to terrorise" he said.
"Young people get a bad rap and sometimes its deserved but in this case these fireworks do not grow on trees. These fireworks were illegally imported or smuggled over the border, they distributed and sold by adults."
