The Wild Atlantic Way remains one of the great tourist marketing triumphs of our time. The smartest thing about it is that it reframed what was already in existence. The production value is the coastal scenery. All it needed was some signposting, a map and a brand that is instantly graspable. At the time, it felt less like a marketing success and more like a light bulb moment.

While tourist bodies have attempted to capitalise on Ireland’s heritage and traditions of Samhain, there is something incoherent about the approach.

This year marks the second year of Fáilte Ireland, Tourism Ireland and Tourism Northern Ireland’s Home of Halloween programme. The Derry Halloween Festival feeds into this, now in its 40th year. There’s also the Púca Festival in Meath, although it’s hard to discern how some of the programming – top-heavy with concerts – fits thematically with the celebration. A Samhain procession, the lighting of fires, and some events that speak to ancestral traditions are more on point.

One of the issues with what is being rolled out (and sold to tourists) under the Home of Halloween banner is that Dublin city centre doesn’t seem to feature. But there is an obvious opportunity to bring people into the city on Halloween as the nights draw darker, and offer them things to do.

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