"I've literally just caught a pigeon."

Zoom call at today's Stormont Finance committee interrupted - after a pet cat brings a pigeon into the official's home. #Zoom

The official was, the appropriately named... Colin Pigeon. pic.twitter.com/HFicbA1iLI

— Darran Marshall (@DarranMarshall) February 24, 2021

A MEETING OF Stormont’s Finance committee was interrupted this afternoon when a live pigeon was dragged into a video call by an attendee’s pet cat.

The appropriately named Colin Pidgeon, a public finance and economics researcher at the Northern Ireland Assembley, stopped the meeting when he was unexpectedly joined by two guests.

He told the partly virtual Stormont committee: “I have literally just caught a pigeon.”

Pidgeon displayed the pigeon on screen to the amusement of his colleagues, before apologising and leaving to remove the live bird from his room.

Ulster Unionist Party leader Steve Aiken joked that the committee would skip a question involving Pidgeon while he put out the bird, which the cat had not killed.

Officials also joked that the catch was “much more interesting” than the meeting’s topics, and ironically praised Pidgeon for dealing with the problem.

“Congratulations Colin, well done. You kept your composure the whole way through that, amazing,” one person said.

“I’ve never been interrupted by wildlife before,” Pidgeon responded.

The Northern Ireland Assembly Committee for Finance later took to social media to reassure the public that nobody – or no animal – was harmed during the unexpected course of events.

“The Committee wishes to confirm no pigeon or indeed Pidgeon were harmed during this incident,” it said.