Gardaí disperse teens after party invite goes viral

Hundreds of people were dispersed by gardaí last night after they responded to an internet party invitation posted by a Cavan teenager.

Gardaí were at the teen's home at Lavey, Co Cavan, overnight after an invitation he made to his Facebook friends went viral.

Garda Inspector Aidan Farrelly said the situation went "haywire".

“He sent the invitation to no more than 20 to 40 Facebook friends but it just went crazy," Insp Farrelly said.

"Several busloads of people turned up and we asked them to disperse. There were a few hundred at least."

The young man’s Facebook invitation exploded on the internet when more than 1,000 people said they would attend what they regarded as a public event, as his parents were away from home.

Although he quickly withdrew the invitation, another Facebook user replicated it, causing chaos. It attracted attention on Twitter, with most tweets warning that the house would be destroyed.

Gardaí however said no arrests were made during the event near Ballyjamesduff, dubbed '#projectXCavan' on Twitter in reference to the recent movie 'Project X'.

"come over for cans" he said, " #ProjectXCavan " they said.

— Clodagh Bergin (@clodaghhhh) July 6, 2012

Inspector Farrelly last night spoke of the dangers of posting such invitations on the internet.

“This young man made the invitation to his circle of friends but it went crazy. At least he had the good sense to call us when he felt things were getting out of hand.”

This story courtesy of the Irish Examiner