‘Summoning spell’ in episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is actually Irish news item about bus lane in Dublin

‘That feeling when you spend hours trying to summon a demon, and then three show up at once’

A 1999 episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer appears to show an Irish news report within the pages of a book of magic spells (Getty)

Filling up the pages of a dusty book of spells with occult languages and hieroglyphs is a tough job, but someone’s got to do it - such props are a staple in any horror or fantasy drama.

But it appears the props department in teen vampire series Buffy The Vampire Slayer took something of a shortcut when generating incantations.

So much so that the text of “a summoning spell” in 1999 episode “Fear Itself” may have been directly lifted from a news item in Ireland about the opening of a new bus lane in Dublin.

In the episode, Buffy and her friends are stuck in a haunted house and trying to take on a demon called Gachnar who is threatening them and apparently “feeds on fear”.

Amid the panic, they find a suspicious book lying open in the corner of the room.

“I think it’s Gaelic,” Willow says, looking at the ancient text.

“Can you translate it?” Buffy asks. Willow nods.

As an eerie scream erupts, Buffy says: “Willow give me something.”

“The icon’s called the mark of Gachnar,” Willow begins.

But translating the Irish seen in a screengrab from the episode reveals the text actually begins: “A special bus route will open in Dublin today despite reports that it may cause traffic congestion as a result.”

The “summoning spell” then continues to provide further traffic instructions relating to the bus route as well as information about an AA campaign.

“The Irish in a Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode is about a new bus lane opening in Dublin,” said Damien Ryan who posted a photograph of the text on Twitter.

There are many entertaining replies below the tweet, but this remark by Tim Stamp stood out: “That feeling when you spend hours trying to summon a daemon, and then three show up at once…”

Going back to the action in the programme, just as the situation seems hopeless - perhaps due to the bizarre information in the spell book - Giles turns up wielding a chainsaw and starts reading from the book.

In his translation he says: “The summoning spell for Gachnar can be shut down in one of two ways: Destroying the mark of Gachnar…” prompting Buffy to smash through a pentagram painted on thick wooden floorboards, before Giles continues “...is not one of them and will in fact immediately bring forth the fear demon itself.”

A howl fills the room and light glows from the smashed hole in the floor, before a towering orc-like man comes out. Then a stunning plot twist sees the camera zoom out to reveal the fearsome demon is about five inches tall.

“I am the dark lord of nightmares,” he shouts in a pipsqueak voice from the floor. Buffy responds by squishing him dead with a quick stamp.

It is not known what happened to the new bus route in Dublin.