© GlobalLookPress / Arco Images GmbH / Esch, J.File photo of a domestic rat, possibly preparing to pop his comrades into a casserole.
Wednesday's tweet from the Irish Times shared a link to a feature about a couple of ghost ships currently at large somewhere on the high seas that could - maybe, possibly, in the right conditions - wind up washing ashore along Ireland's coast. And the vessel of most concern is apparently "an abandoned former Soviet cruise liner [called] Lyubov Orlova" which is apparently manned only by rats who have a taste for their own.
The article even admits that the Irish Coast Guard believes the vessel has probably already sunk to the watery depths.
The reaction on social media, though, may not have been what the outlet was hoping for, with Twitter users panning the alarmist message en masse as a blatant attempt by the broadsheet to turn spectacularly tabloid in order to generate some lucrative online clicks.
"More click bait - the Lyubov Orlova isn't the only thing racing to the bottom," one person wrote, while another said, "The Irish Times is becoming more like The Sun every day."
Several people pointed out that if the rats are cannibals then, logically, after enough time there'd only be one rat left - and if they feast on their fellow rodents, then humans need not worry.
The Irish Times article on a supposed cannibal rat-infested vessel comes in the wake of an unmanned ship washing ashore in the southwest of the country, courtesy of Storm Dennis.
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