All-Ireland: Croke Park seagull recuperating after pitch invasion

More than 80,000 people watched the final at the the Dublin venue, while more than a million viewed it on TV.

Mr Donoher joked that it was their first celebrity seagull.

“It’s a first from a live match on the telly any way,” he said.

“We do get animals sometimes that are caught in football nets or maybe found on the pitch, but this would be the very first of a bird just dropping on the pitch during a live game.”

The centre currently has about 400 animals, 100 of them seagulls.

“We do get a lot of gulls at this time of year – it’s orphan season so this is our busiest time of the year,” Mr Donoher said.

“They do come into conflict with humans a lot.”

He said there had been a 70% increase in people contacting the group in the last year alone.

“At the moment we have swans, hedgehogs, we have a lot of barn owls, long-eared owls, we have garden birds, pigeons – that’s another common one we see – otters, pine martens, all different types of Irish wildlife,” he said.

“Over the next couple of months all the young animals will be released back into the wild.”