MAN USES INSTAGRAM/PHOTOSHOP TO FAKE TRIP TO WILLIE CLANCY WEEK

A local musician has been discovered to have faked an entire trip to this year’s Willie Clancy Summer School using Instagram and Photoshop.

Thaddeus O’Luanaigh was found to have used Photoshop to superimpose himself into a variety of scenarios at the famous festival in Miltown Malbay and posted them on his Instagram, apparently to give the impression he was there all week.

It was later discovered that the fiddle player was in fact unable to attend, despite telling people via Facebook and text message that he was there all week.

One musician told The Drone: “It was really strange. He told people all week that he was there. He was even texting me telling me that he was at Michael A’s and to come down. But when I arrived there, there was no sign of him.”

“He said that I just missed him and that he was now in Friel’s. This kept going on and on. The big give away was the musicians he was saying he was playing with: Sean Maguire, Micho Russell, Tommy Potts and the like. Sure they’re long dead!”

O’Luanaigh posted a number of badly Photoshopped pictures of him attending sessions, on the beach at Spanish Point, listening to the recitals and even beside the Miltown Malbay roadsign.

Friends and other musicians suspected something was amiss when O’Luanaigh posted pictures of himself at the gala concert on Saturday three days before the concert took place. The caption underneath the picture said, “Great to hang out with fantastic musicians! Can’t believe you guys are missing this!”.

When asked about the Photoshopped pictures, O’Luanaigh denied having doctored the photos and maintained that he had been there all week and that other musicians were “just jealous” of the craic that he was having.