Four years on from an unprovoked attack by seagulls on a Sligo Leitrim TD new research has been published today that may shed some light what led to the altercation.
Scientists are now claiming that seagulls have become chip and ice cream thieves because they see how much humans enjoy eating them.
Researchers at the University of Sussex carried out an experiment where different colour crisp bags were placed on a beach, and teams sat nearby eating crisps from green and blue bags.
The Daily Telegraph reports 95 per cent of seagulls pecked at the packets that matched the colour of the bags the researchers were eating from - and around one quarter approached them to try to steal their crisps.
Attacks by Seagulls on humans is not an entirely new development
The issue of attacks by seagulls was raised in the Seanad by the then Seantor, Frank Feighan in 2019.
He raised the issue following an attack by a flock of seagulls on Grafton Street in Dublin.
At the time he called for something needs to be done to control such activity:
