Feathers have been flying over the identity of a mysterious rooster photographed with top union officials during the Aer Lingus dispute.
The bird has been revealed to be a rooster called "Willie Walsh" who lives beside the Dublin airport headquarters of the Irish Airline Pilots' Association (Ialpa).
Readers contacted The Irish Timesthis week to ask about the mysterious "chicken" that appeared in a photograph on page seven of Tuesday's paper, beside the feet of Impact's Michael Landers and Ialpa's Capt Evan Cullen.
Was it a prop, hired to crow on cue should Aer Lingus back down? A flightless symbol to represent potentially grounded pilots? An escapee from the union's kitchen?
The bird was, in fact, an innocent bystander. "Willie Walsh" is a streetwise rooster named after the British Airways chief and former head of Aer Lingus.
Willie - the rooster, not the airline executive - lives in bushes near Dublin airport, between the offices of Siptu and Ialpa. "He's been here longer than me," said one Siptu staff member.
"We presumed at the time that he'd been left behind by the French rugby team."
Perhaps due to his proximity to two of the nation's strongest unions, Willie has a comfortable working life. He's fed and watered by Ialpa staff, said the Siptu source, who declined to give her name. "The pilots give him scraps," she said.
Willie is a loner, and tougher than his mild-mannered exterior suggests. And as for his nickname? "Willie Walsh used to be out here," she said. "He was a very well-known character. Other than that, no comment."