Limerick City and County Council in Ireland promoted its Christmas 2026 program with an AI-generated video, posted on its social media the weekend of October 17-18. On Monday, October 19, Sean Lenihan, the council’s director in charge of tourism, told councilors the video was made with AI “because we don’t have that particular type of footage yet,” the Limerick Post reported on October 21, 2026. “We will have real footage next year,” he added.
According to councilor Elisa O’Donovan, the council responded to the weekend’s criticism by turning off the comments. Every councilor who spoke at Monday’s meeting criticized the video, and the Limerick Leader reported that Lenihan admitted using AI was “not our best decision.”
The same week, Just Eat paused its trial of AI-generated dish photos for restaurants in the UK and Ireland. In Limerick, the AI video showed events that have not happened yet.
Councilors in unison
Monday’s meeting brought together the councilors of the Metropolitan District, which covers the city and its surroundings. O’Donovan, a Social Democrats councilor for City West, said all 21 councilors in the district had been contacted about the video. “It was clearly AI made,” she said, recalling the disbelief of a group of young filmmakers who were shooting a Halloween short at her house.
“We don’t need AI to showcase our city,” she went on, calling the video “so misleading.” She pointed to the council’s past debates about local creatives “who are being replaced by AI.” The most disappointing part, in her view, was how the council handled the weekend’s criticism: “The council’s response was to turn off the comments on social media. That is not a legitimate response to something that I think people were clearly upset about.”
Daniel Butler (Fine Gael) said the intention to promote the Christmas program was good, but called the use of AI “unwise, to say the least” and the result “a bit amateurish because it’s something that probably even someone as unskilled as I could have generated.” In the Limerick Leader, he called it an “embarrassing and amateurish” ad.
Sarah Kiely (Fine Gael) called it “the Limerick version of The Polar Express” and tied it to the budget: “We have budget negotiations coming up at the end of this month. By God, we need to look at our communications and marketing strategy, how they’re funded, and how public money is spent on a mishmash of a mess.”
Across the chamber, the video drew comparisons to Terminator, the Grinch and the Coca-Cola Christmas ads. Dan McSweeney (Fine Gael) said removing the comments was “behaviour that you wouldn’t get in Russia.”
The director defends a “good news story”
Lenihan, the council’s director of economic, tourism, culture, property and corporate buildings, told councilors the council wanted to get out ahead of Christmas and tell people what was planned. “On the video that was mentioned, it was acknowledged that it was an AI-generated video because we don’t have that particular type of footage yet. We will have real footage next year, but the whole purpose of the video clip was to show Christmas at the Castle, the Santa party, and the proposed fair at the Crescent. It was really a good news story,” he said, according to the Limerick Post.
A Christmas still in the works
Lenihan spoke of “Christmas at the Castle.” The council’s September 18 release announces an event called Castle Christmas, at King John’s Castle from November 21 to December 23, 2026, awarded to Big Boss Group after a competitive bidding process. The release describes a roughly 75-minute walk-through with elves, Santa and a workshop where each child personalizes a teddy bear. Children’s tickets, which include the workshop, start at €37.50; adult tickets start at €16.50.
The Crescent market is still a proposal. According to the Limerick Leader of October 12, the council wants to close the Crescent, the stretch of O’Connell Street by the Daniel O’Connell monument, to traffic from November 16 to December 31 for a Christmas market with 16 stalls and a bar, sized for about 750 visitors at a time. On October 21, the paper reported that more than 400 people had sent their views to the council, that local pub owners were angry about the bar and that seven in ten Limerick Chamber members asked did not support the closure. A council spokesperson said no final decisions had been made and that the Metropolitan District’s elected members would decide.
By the director’s own account, then, the video showed a market that the councilors who criticized it on Monday have yet to rule on.
The council does have footage of last Christmas: its Christmas in Limerick 2025 video, released December 30, 2025, showed the light-up procession, Fossett’s Christmas Circus, the Toots Christmas train and the ice rink at Arthur’s Quay Park.
On September 1, the council had also opened a call for Christmas in Limerick 2026 projects from artists, community groups and cultural institutions, with €15,000 in total funding, the Limerick Leader reported. Individual awards were expected to range from €500 to €5,000, and applications closed September 18. Nothing in the reports links that call to the video.
Unanswered questions
Neither the Limerick Post nor the Limerick Leader says which social network carried the video, who made it, with which tool or at what cost, or whether the post said it was AI-generated. We could not view the post itself; the Limerick Post runs a still from it.
The reports also do not say whether the comments were turned back on, or whether real footage will replace the video once Castle Christmas opens. Lenihan only promised real footage “next year.”
What it means
Coca-Cola, cited in the chamber, got the same reception. In November 2024, its AI-generated Christmas ad, a tribute to its 1995 “Holidays Are Coming” spot, was called “soulless” by people online, NBC News reported. The brand did it again in 2025, and Pratik Thakar, its global VP and head of generative AI, told TODAY that “last year’s film performed exceptionally well.” A brand can choose to absorb the backlash; a local government answers for it in a public meeting, in front of the elected members who negotiate its budget.
AI video lets an organizer show an event before it happens, without a shoot. The council had dates, a contractor and prices, but no footage of Castle Christmas or of the Crescent market. O’Donovan called the video “misleading”; the director called it “a good news story.” Both readings describe the same thing: pictures of a Christmas that has not happened yet, part of which has not even been decided.
Other AI-generated promotional content made news this month, such as the fake crying women selling apps on TikTok. On October 8, LinkedIn said its “AI slop” detector now checks every post shown beyond the author’s network. In Limerick, the comment shutdown O’Donovan described gave councilors a second complaint: how the council handles criticism.
The budget talks at the end of October will show whether Kiely gets a review of how the council’s communications are funded. The district’s councilors also have to rule on the Crescent market. Castle Christmas opens November 21, the first day the event can be filmed.
Sources
- Use of AI puts Limerick Council on Santa’s naughty list, Limerick Post, October 21, 2026
- Publicans’ fury at temporary bar plan for Christmas in Limerick, Limerick Leader, October 21, 2026
- Six week traffic ban for part of Limerick’s main thoroughfare, Limerick Leader, October 12, 2026
- Limerick City and County Council Announces New Christmas Experience at King John’s Castle for Christmas in Limerick 2026, Limerick City and County Council, September 18, 2026
- New Video Captures the Magic of Christmas in Limerick 2025, Limerick City and County Council, December 30, 2025
- Open call launched for this year’s Christmas in Limerick festive programme, Limerick Leader, September 1, 2026
- Coca-Cola causes controversy with AI-made ad, NBC News, November 18, 2024
- Coca-Cola Releases Another AI-Generated Holiday Ad, Despite Last Year’s Backlash, TODAY, November 4, 2025
Header image: MACCUS diagram. Data: Limerick Post, Limerick Leader and Limerick council, September and October 2026
