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What could have been a very dangerous night for a Cavan teenager was prevented last night as Gardai turned up in Lavey to prevent the fabled ‘Project X’ house party from getting out of hand.

If anyone underestimated the perils of social media, and particularly the danger of issuing party invitations via that medium, they were laid bare in the last few days when a young Cavan teenager’s innocent house party invitation went viral.

With the folks away, the teenager in question had planned a gathering of a select few of his friends at his house on Friday night, but word of the party soon got out of hand, with up to 1,500 people posting on a now non-existent Facebook page that they were planning to attend.

And the motives of those planning to attend weren’t all friendly either. The original invitation, said to have been sent to approximately 20 to 40 people, was quickly withdrawn, but subsequently replicated by another Facebook user, with plenty of the would be partygoers promising chaos and destruction of the poor lad’s house.

Hundreds of people turned out for the party, dubbed ‘Project X’ in reference to a recently released film about a house party that spiralled out of control, but having had prior warning, the Gardai dispersed those who had turned up near Ballyjamesduff and saved the host having to explain to his parents what the hell had happened to their humble abode.

Commenting on the party, Garda Inspector Aidan Farrelly said the situation went "haywire".

“He sent the invitation to no more than 20 to 40 Facebook friends but it just went crazy," Inspector Farrelly said.

"Several busloads of people turned up and we asked them to disperse. There were a few hundred at least."

“This young man made the invitation to his circle of friends but it went crazy. At least he had the good sense to call us when he felt things were getting out of hand.”

Thankfully, despite the presence of hundreds of people, nothing seriously untoward seems to have taken place, although we’re pretty certain your man won’t be advertising any more parties on Facebook... for a couple of months at least.

Main picture via Twitter/Mark Farrelly