ACTIVISTS in Dublin protesting to highlight the housing crisis in Ireland appeared to suffer verbal abuse before having a pigeon’s head thrown at them.
As part of Take Back the City’s National Day of Action on Saturday, events took place across the country, including the capital.
The main rally in Dublin saw protestors march from the Garden of Remembrance to O’Connell Street Bridge, where more than 1,000 people staged a sit-down protest.
However as the peaceful protest is going on, a man who is part of a group of men appears to start shouting abuse at the activists.
After shouts of ‘f*****g scroungers’ and ‘lazy b******s’, another man in the group then appears to take a pigeon’s head from his trouser pocket and throw it at the protestors.
THESE ROTTEN ENGLISH TOURISTS JUST ROARED ABUSE AT US THEN THREW A PIGEON’S HEAD AT US!!! WHAT THE FUCK ! pic.twitter.com/iyEhfLacwB
— butch babe in LA (@bitnch) 22 September 2018
A video capturing the incident, above, was shared on Twitter and has since been viewed hundreds of thousands of times.
The incident, which has since been dubbed #Pigeongate on Twitter, also saw the word ‘Pigeon’ trending in Dublin.
The Take Back the City activists have been protesting rent hikes, evictions and poor housing conditions, which they say are on the rise while vacant properties owned by private landlords remain unused.
The eviction of activists from a private property last week drew criticism after masked gardaí attended as a private security firm carried out the operation.
Five people protesting the eviction on North Frederick Street were arrested for public order offences and were later released.
