PARENTS RUIN SON'S CHRISTMAS BY TELLING HIM ALEC FINN ISN'T REAL

A pair of local parents have told their son that bouzouki maestro Alec Finn isn't real and in doing so, ruin their son's Christmas.

The founding member of De Danann is a mystical type figure who appears in many stories told to the young boy of how a white haired figure delivers gifts of good accompaniment.

The parents took the decision to break the news to their only child as they felt he was getting too old to be believing in such nonsense, adding that good bouzouki playing is far too wild an idea to be imagining at his age.

"He was getting to the age where all this pretense was just becoming tokenistic, he would have found out eventually. I mean only a small child has the imagination to really by into the idea of Finn's playing actually existing."

"He's devastated but he'll get over it in time. Although I think it has ruined the listening of a lot of CDs for him. Just the fact that knowing this this is all make-believe!"

The child is angry at being lied to by his parents and wishes he could go back to a time where they would regale him with stories of Alec riding in in his Saab convertible shouting: "On Frankie, on Dolores, on Ringo and Jackie. On Hickey, on Mairtín, on Johnnie and Charlie."