This article is from page 21 of the 2011-03-22 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 21 JPG
A CLARE practical joker, who posed as a businessman in an effort to convince the public that his friend was about to open a sex shop in Ennis, says he will attempt an even bigger hoax later this year, if he can come up with a suitable idea.
N i n e t e e n – y e a r old Ballyea student Michael Gavin created a fake email address, business phone number and online persona for his friend in an effort to convince the public that this friend was about to open a sex shop on O’Connell Street in Ennis.
The Clareman, who is an Economics and Finance student at the University of Limerick, posted a notice on the Clare section of boards.ie, claiming that the sex shop was to open in Ennis on St Patrick’s Day.
When contacted by journalists, Mr Gavin pretended to be a businessman and claimed to be about to open the sex shop despite the objections of the “Joe Duffy brigade”.
Speaking to The Clare People yesterday Mr Gavin said that the sex shop hoax was not even the biggest practical jokes he had pulled off recently.
“I wouldn’t say that this is my biggest hoax ever but it’s definitely up there in my top 10. I’m not planning anything specifically in the future but if I get a good enough idea I wouldn’t
rule it out in future,”
he said. “I have played
pranks like this in
the past but if I was
to talk about them
in the newspaper I
would probably get
myself into a bit off
trouble,” he added. According to Mr
Gavin, he was a
quiet and shy stu
dent and only began to plan practical jokes and seek public attention in recent years.
“In school I wasn’t a big joker, I was always very focussed on my studies and had too much respect for the teachers and the other student’s to disrupt their work,” he said.
“To be honest I haven’t a clue where I got my idea from. I knew if I put something controversial but believable [up on boards.ie] there would have been a good chance that a journalist would be looking around and find it.”