The duck that stopped Dublin

Dublin ground to a halt this Friday last. Not as a result of spontaneous grief and mourning at the passing of former Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Charles J. Haughey (pause for peals of laughter), but rather due to the no-shit, 'don't fuck with me' attitude of a female duck.

A mother duck brought traffic in central Dublin to a standstill for an annual event Friday as she marched her seven ducklings to a pond for their first swim.

The duck, encouraged by delighted passersby, was relocating her young from their birthplace in the grounds of Trinity College to St. Stephen's Green, the city's historic public park, around half a mile away.

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Never fuck with a Dublin duck

It must have been this time last year I was having a lunchtime coffee on Dawson Street when I noticed 3 Gardaí "escorting" that duck and her string of lovely ducklings up to St Stephen's Green... as they walked up the street everyone, from teenage girls to burly builders, let out an audible "aaaaahhh". A simple thing that put a smile on everyones faces and had complete strangers nodding and smiling at each other. Priceless.