The website of Ireland's national broadcaster has been leading all last night and into lunch-time today with the number of fire brigade call-outs during Halloween night.
"Of the 585 calls Dublin Fire Brigade received, 470 were directly related to Halloween.
Chief Fire Officer Greg O'Dwyer described the call volume as "extremely high", but said there were no reports of any firework-related injuries."
So, nobody was actually hurt-- thank God. And yet it's presented as a night of chaos.
I grew up in Ballymun, the high-rise Dublin suburb, in the eighties. Every year there was not one but several massive bonfires. (This was easily possible as there were many green spaces in Ballymun.) The sparks at our local bonfire, in the field outside my apartment block, regularly reached up to our seventh-floor windows. These bonfires were organised entirely by local children, although adults always came for the lighting. The firewood was collected for months ahead of time. It was great. I never heard of anyone being injured. The fire would be surrounded by a huge ring of people of all ages.
This wasn't exactly legal, and I think the fire brigade often did come to put them out. But there was no great hullaballoo about it. Often they burned for hours.
Another story, last night, finished with these (to me) rather chilling words:
"Mr O'Dwyer urged parents to try to get their children to go to organised events around the city."He said: "They're fun organised events with lots of entertainment, and some with organised firework displays, licensed firework displays.
"Many with kind of funfair activities, food and entertainment. Much more fun than standing around a cold night, standing around a bonfire with toxic fumes coming off it." "