A horror for north Dublin locals - Bird infestation

Anyone who has seen The Birds, the 1963 horror-thriller film directed Alfred Hitchcock, will have some sympathy for the residents of Balbriggan, Howth, and Skerries in north Co Dublin, where an infestation of seagulls is making life miserable for locals.

While the gulls are not the dive-bombers depicted by Hitchcock, their proliferation has proven a scourge and locals say the threat to public health is not being taken seriously by the authorities.