Search icon

Life

19th Feb 2019

This story about Dublin Airport, a Lidl store, and an African parrot has put us in a great mood

Rory Cashin

airport lidl parrot

Yes, we know it sounds like the set-up to a Family Guy joke.

On Tuesday afternoon, Dublin Airport tweeted an image of a beautiful African parrot, saying it had been discovered on one of the runways:

“Our firefighter Craig Wade found this African grey parrot during a routine runway inspection earlier this week. She’s being given specialist care & is calm & doing well. We’d like to reunite her with her owner. Please RT to help us find them & DM us if she is yours.”

As much as we can relate to the misery and pain of losing a pet, we are also quite used to the prospect of a reunion never really happening because… well… that is usually how these things go.

The pet runs/flies away, and you then there is a good chance that it isn’t going to run/fly back.

Which is where things take a bit of a turn, thanks to a flier posted in a Lidl store.

Yep, the social media person for Lidl replied to the Dublin Airport tweet with the following:

“Guys this is going to sound unbelievable but there’s a “Missing Parrot” poster in one of our stores, so we called the number to check and it’s his parrot! We’ll drop you a DM now.”

JOE got in contact with Lidl Ireland, and we found out that the missing parrot poster was posted (say THAT five times real fast!) in their Finglas branch, which is only about 10km away from Dublin Airport. But still, the sights that parrot must have seen on the way; DCU! Santry! Ballymun!

The rollercoaster is coming near to the end now, even as Dublin Airport replied yet again, this time stating that there has actually been more than one person claiming the parrot to be theirs:

“Thanks again for the heads up Lidl Ireland. We’ve been in touch with him. Also had contact from some other possible owners. Working to get her back home now.”

How many lost African grey parrots are there in Ireland right now??

Fingers crossed this one makes it back home soon!

LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ with Aideen McQueen – Faith healers, Coolock craic and Gigging as Gaeilge