AN INJURED GULL that wandered the Croke Park turf for around 25 minutes of the first half of the All-Ireland Men’s Football final is “doing very well” after being taken into care.

The gull was a curious sight on the field between Sunday’s final between Armagh and Galway, which was won by the Orchard County.

It transpired that the gull had a wing injury and wildlife expert Barry Nolan took the gull off the pitch and transported it to Kildare Wildlife Rescue.

Seagull saved. pic.twitter.com/MVrAlFp7hE

— Tommy Rooney (@TomasORuanaidh) July 28, 2024

Kildare Wildlife Centre was founded in 2022 by a small group of wildlife rehabilitators and rescue volunteers, and the team now responds to calls of wildlife in need from around the country.

The rescue centre noted that the gull “caused quite the stir online after being spotted on the pitch”. 

Dan Donoher is the organisation manager at Kildare Wildlife Rescue and speaking to Oliver Callan on RTÉ Radio 1, he said the gull was “swiftly brought to our centre where we checked him over after being rescued from the pitch”.

While many people referred to the bird as a ‘seagull’, Donoher noted that there is “no such thing really as a seagull and that’s just a general term people use”.

Donoher said it is in fact a herring gull.

“These guys probably have a partner and some young at this time of year, so that’s why it’s important to get him back,” said Donoher.

Gull rescued from the pitch of the All Ireland game yesterday @officialgaa @Armagh_GAA @Galway_GAA pic.twitter.com/Zc0J7hRvrX

— Kildare Wildlife Rescue (@WildlifeKildare) July 29, 2024

He added that the gull has a “slight wing injury” and has been given “some pain relief and some fluids”.

“He was a bit shocked after his ordeal,” said Donoher, “but he’s doing very well and we hope to have him for another few days before releasing him back.

“There were a lot of worried people but he’s going to be okay.”

Donoher said the gull should be released back into the wild in the next two days, and that the centre will post a video of the release to social media.

Donoher added that the gull has been given no name as of yet, but that the centre is open to suggestions.

Meanwhile, Donoher said it’s a really busy time of the year for the centre and that it is currently dealing with over 400 animals, 100 of which are gulls.

“We deal with a lot of gulls and a lot of them are from Dublin City,” said Donoher.

“They would have fallen from buildings and stuff and can’t be put back up, so we take them in and rehab them and they go back to the wild when they’re fit.”