SIMON TIERNEYlooks at Halloween on a budget
IRELAND IS A UNIQUE place to be at Halloween. The island is stuffed with ancient castles and gothic ghost stories. The scariest free Halloween activity is the game Sardines. Wait until dark, when the food and wine has been consumed. Switch the lights off. One person hides. The others must find them and join them in hiding until all but one is left . . . alone. This works best in a large house, but it is adaptable and great fun.
Rather than spend a fortune on Halloween costumes, upcycle your household items instead: used tins, bags and cereal boxes can be used to make unique and absurd outfits. Or you could just wear nothing and go as "austerity".
The Dublin Ghostbus Tour (dublinsightseeing.ie) takes visitors on a chilling scare-ride around the Dublin of Bram Stoker, Dr Clossy and Walking Gallows. There are five free pairs of tickets (normally €28 each) for the first readers to email info@dublinsightseeing.ie, using "Halloween Offer" in the subject line.
If you like being scared, the Haunted Spooktacular Horror Farm (Grove Gardens and Open Farm, Fordstown, Kells, Co Meath, tel: 046-9434276) promises a proper scarefest. Taking place across 10 acres of land, the event uses special effects to create a "four dimensional assault on the senses". There are 10 free pairs of tickets (worth €16 each), for entry before October 31st, available to the first readers to email hauntedspooktacular@gmail.com.
Cult Halloween favourite The Rocky Horror Picture Show screens at an annual extravaganza in the Sugar Club (8 Lower Leeson St, Dublin 2, tel: 01-678 7188) tonight at 8pm. With audience participation, free props and cakes, this is an opportunity to experience the "midnight movie" in all its outrageous glory. There are three free pairs of tickets (worth €15 each) for the first readers to email wiltylp@hotmail.com before 5pm today.
One of the "most haunted places in Ireland," Wicklow's Historic Gaol (Kilmantin Hill, Wicklow Town, Co Wicklow, tel: 0404-61599, wicklowshistoricgaol.com) is hosting Night Ghost Tours on October 31st as part of their Halloween line-up: a dramatised and interactive journey back to the prison's 18th century origins. Guests will meet some of the gaol's most notorious prisoners. There are five complimentary pairs of tickets available to the first readers to email tara@wicklowshistoricgaol.com
