Halloween Spectacular in Passage West

Halloween Spectacular in Passage West

Writes Leo McMahon

Nobody does Halloween like Passage West as you will see by visiting the incredible ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ themed display in the playground of the former Star of the Sea Primary School. It has all been made possible by an amazing international team of volunteers who are raising funds for Marymount University Hospital and Hospice.

It's open from this Friday, October 24^th to Sunday, October 26th from 6 to 9pm and there’s a sensory family session on bank holiday Monday, October 27th from 4.30 to 8.30pm. Admission is €5 per child, €10 per adult or €20 for a family of four. There is also a Passage West Halloween Display iDonate page online on an excellent Facebook page created by Shirley Mee. Last year’s display on the theme of horror movies made €20,000 and the target for 2025 is €25,000.

There are two major displays. The first, outdoors, is Pirates of the Caribbean illuminated English and Spanish galleons with a plank and close by a guillotine, a sponge throwing stock, a photo-shoot and the Creepy Café.

You then enter the footbridge to the most amazing indoor maize of horrors you will ever experience with lots of skeletons, ghosts, creepy crawlies and human guests. There’s a graveyard, courtroom, a torture dungeon, a treasure room and map, a storm room, a calypso room, a ship’s wheel, an undersea passage, spooky sounds and music and much more. The maize is wheelchair accessible and if you get lost or too scared there are escape doors!

Incredibly, both the ships and maize structures are made almost entirely of wooden pallets crafted mainly by Steve Butcher and other recycled materials. The displays have projections of clips from Pirate of the Caribbean and sound effects.

Francis McEveney, Steve Butcher and Agnieszka Lewandowska of the the 2025 Passage West Halloween Display in aid of Marymount

Driving force Francis McEveney explained that the display isn’t on Halloween itself due to the fact that families and children will be busy trick-an-treating that night.

Great credit is due to the construction team driving force Francis McEeveney, Steve Butcher, Agnieszka Lewandowska, Monika Zbos, Miguel Recio, Mark O’Sullivan, Michelle Delgano and many other volunteers and collectors from the local community; Dramarama Academy, Rochestown; Passage West Men’s Shed represented by Walty Murphy; local clubs and organisations as well as business sponsors.

      Mayo man Francis said it all began a few years when major Halloween displays inside and outside outgrew his home at Church Hill, Passage West.  The move to the former school site was made four years ago and the annual display has raised €50,000 for Marymount.