Fáilte Ireland were fearful their marketing campaigns for Dublin could end up being used in social media “memes and gifs” as rioting engulfed the capital city in November.
The tourism agency temporarily pulled all promotion of the city due to the “shocking incidents” that were taking place with shops looted, buses and Luas trams burned, and gardaí assaulted.
In internal emails, staff said their adverts needed to be pulled as they would seem “inappropriate while there was so much devastation happening in the city centre”.
One message said: “In addition, we were really concerned that our messages would add to the negative messages on social media around Dublin, with memes and gifs being created that would create ridicule and more negative content about the city.”
Read the full set of records below: