All-lreland seagull recovers in Kildare

THE seagull that spent nearly 25 minutes on the pitch at Croke Park at the recent All-Ireland Final between Galway and Armagh made its recovery at an animal sanctuary in Kildare town, and has since been released.

Kildare Wildlife Rescue (KWR) , located beside a veterinary practice on Grey Abbey Road took in the herring gull after it was rescued from the field of play by wildlife expert Barry Nolan, amid fears that it might get trampled underfoot.

Despite the bird being unofficially named ‘SquawkEye’ by the listeners of a national radio show, the staff at KWR did not persist with this as “it’s a wild animal”, according to manager Dan Donogher.

“It has a slight injury to its right wing, probably after it hit off something, so it’s really just some bruising. There’s also a small wound between the eyes, and that could have happened in the cage when it was being transported here, or when it arrived,” he said.

“I suppose we sometimes find problems with members of the public forming attachments when they bring in an animal and give it a name.

“We have an email system from 8am to 11pm every day, and everyone was so concerned, the emails were flooding in, I don’t know exactly how many we got, but it was tons of them anyway.

Kildare Wildlife Rescue has over 400 animals there this week, and had around 520 at it peak in late June.

“There’s a huge demand for our services. There was a 70 per cent increase in the amount of emails coming in earlier in the spring, compared to last year. It’s a totally voluntary-run system, but we will have to look for funding because it’s a good resource for the country,” said Dan.

The centre was founded just two years ago, and already is one of the biggest in the country, with spending hitting €85,000 in 2023.

Dan himself has 20 years’ experience working in animal rehabilitation, starting at 17, and is able to draw upon support from 120 registered volunteers, though more are always welcome.