Leprechauns who were employed to dance during recent Yuletide festivals are reportedly disappointed to have been made redundant unceremoniously as soon as the season ended.

‘I gave it my all,’ complained one flamboyant fairy-folk flouncer, ‘and yet still they cast me aside like a cheap pair of ballet shoes. Life isn’t easy for a down-on-his-luck leprechaun, you know.’

Festival organisers were unrepentant.

‘It’s seasonal work. They can reapply next year, if they so wish,’ said one scurrilous skinflint. ‘These leprechauns are always complaining but it’s the nature of employment in festival-circuit dancing – it’s what we call the jig economy. To be sure, it’s not what you’d call a real job, is it? They don’t even dance to decent music: it’s just sham Rock DJ. Nah, if they don’t like it, they can go and work for Uber – oh, but of course, their feet won’t reach the pedals!’

It’s not this reporter’s place to say but some people really do richly deserve to suffer a leprechaun’s curse…