Despite claims about scared hikers and attempts to link this work to demonic worship the truth about how and why this story broke reveals one journalist's greed for ratings and others' unwillingness to be left behind.

Miles Dungan was a reporter for 'The Pat Kenny Show', a program broadcast by RTE, Ireland's national radio station. In early June, 1986, 2 months after the 'Deep in the Woods' performance took place, Dungan was at a cocktail party where one of the guests told him and others a tale about an interesting discovery he and his hiking friends made while trekking in the Dublin mountains. It was told as a party anecdote and at no stage mentioned people being frightened. While it may not have been thrilling, Dungan, tired of running stories like 'Ladies Underwear Hunt', saw the opportunity to further his career with an enhanced version. He broke the story on 'The Pat Kenny Show' on June 10th with a live broadcast from 'the scene of the crime'. That evening it made the front page of 'The Evening Herald' claiming a 'Garda (police) Hunt' was underway, leaving the police in a difficult position, having been fully apprised of the artist's actions in advance. The following day all the other papers joined and stretched the story. The media blitz lasted a week. The follow-up story of it being an artwork appeared in small columns deep inside the papers that bothered to run it at all.

Miles Dungan went on to get his own TV show on RTE TV.

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© GD Feb. 1999