Debunked: Video of Dublin used in false claim about ‘massacre' on day of Carlow shooting

The Journal

05-06-2025

A VIDEO TAKEN in Dublin that was falsely said to show a 'shopping mall massacre' in which a nine-year-old child was shot by a man carrying explosives, has been shared millions of times on social media. The claim is untrue, and the video is unrelated.
Several posts making this claim appeared online on 1 June, after reports of
a gunman
at a shopping centre in Carlow.
Gardaí quickly stated that a shooting incident had occurred, but within hours explained that the only person who had died was the suspect, from self-inflicted injuries. The suspect was a white, Irish man from the local area.
A girl
was injured
when she fell while running away from the scene and required attention from paramedics, though did not need hospital care. While the bomb squad had been called in, no explosives were found at the scene. These events are likely to have spurred speculation about a child being shot and explosive vests.
Some of the misinformation that was spread on social media
included claims
that seven people had been shot; that the gunman was shot dead by Gardaí; and that he was an Islamic terrorist.
However, one viral post about the incident was notable for sharing a video that wasn't from anywhere near the scene and for including a number of other false claims. It was viewed millions of times.
The post shared a video of Gardaí rushing down a street with sirens blaring in the background, alongside a caption that stated: 'Something very serious is unfolding in Ireland right now.
'Today's Shopping Mall Massacre, which saw a 9-year-old girl shot by a man who had explosives strapped to his body, has enraged the General Public. Ireland may have a Civil War VERY soon. The Irish have had enough.'
However, there was no 'massacre', a nine-year-old was not shot, and the gunman did not have explosives strapped to his body.
The video clearly shows Gardaí on Grafton Street in Dublin.
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The scene in the video does not look anything like the area around Fairgreen Shopping Centre, where the incident occurred, nor anywhere else in Carlow town.
The post was shared by the @CilComLFC account on X, and has been viewed more than 5,700,000 times at the time of writing.
The @CilComLFC account has a blue tick on X, a symbol that previously signified that the account belonged to an organisation or public figures, including politicians, recognised authorities and journalists.
However, since the takeover of the company by Elon Musk, these ticks now indicate that the account has paid for a subscription — though X still, misleadingly, refers to these accounts as being
'verified'
.
Paid subscribers also have their posts boosted to get more views and are eligible for X's
Creator Revenue Sharing programme
, where accounts get paid for getting high engagement with their posts.
Posts by the @CilComLFC account have been re-shared on the feed of Elon Musk, the owner of the social media platform.
The account frequently spreads misinformation, often targeting migrants, and claims to be Irish.
Identical posts, using the same footage and wording, were also posted to Facebook multiple times. There, they have accumulated more than 34,000 views, according to statistics from Meta, Facebook's parent company.
They repeat the false claims that the video from Dublin shows a 'massacre' in which a nine-year-old was shot by a gunman who had explosives strapped to his body.
In reality, there was no massacre, no explosives, and nobody aside from the shooter sustained injuries from a gun.
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