This is a direct quote from the woman at the centre of what’s surely the weirdest story of the week — “This year we decided we would like coffins in the garden so my sister-in-law got them made for me...”

Christina Quinn from Athlone in Co Westmeath set a new standard in Halloween decoration when she decided to transform her front garden into a rockery horror show.

Not just the usual fluorescent plastic skeletons and outsize arachnoids for Christina (although these did feature prominently in the tableau).

She opted for a full funeral theme with proper gravestones and the aforementioned bespoke coffins.

Given that, in years past, sightseers have flocked from miles around to see her annual displays (she does another one at Christmas), perhaps Christina felt under pressure to raise the bar on previous efforts.

In Northern Ireland too that grimmest of reapers, old Credit Crunch, does not appear to have scythed into the budgets of those who chose to turn their homes into increasingly spectacular seasonal displays. But as Christina has discovered not everyone is a fan of funereal fantasy.

As it turns out, her local council thought her effort was dead tasteless. So much so that this week they served an eviction notice on the mother and her two young sons.

Officials claimed Mrs Quinn had broken her tenancy agreement over "inappropriate use of her front garden".

People, they said, had been "frightened" by the coffins and the fact that she’d even put names on them. Christina countered that the nameplates — for Crazy Frog, The Ring and Patch — were harmless and that she had not intended any offence. "We took the coffins down after the council complained. Small-minded, jealous people or somebody who has a grudge against me complained," she said. Perhaps a Mr C Frog?

Christina added that she was “in bits”. (Presumably in the emotional, not the dismembered body sense.) She and her family now face losing their home. Alternatively the council faces losing face ?

It is a story for our times, this.

It’s a story of a woman so desperate for the reflected admiration for her dubious display, she’s buried any thought for the feelings of the recently bereaved or those of a sensitive nature. But it’s also a story of a local authority so determined to stick to the rule book that it didn’t simply order the closure of the front lawn cemetery — and lay the matter to rest there. The result? Talk of court action. Further offence taken by those opposed to the ghoulish garden. And for Christina, creator of this horticultural horror, another 15 minutes of ‘fame’.

Dead and buried, 2008?

Common sense.