A man was left with bloody facial injuries after being assaulted by a cyclist in south Dublin earlier this morning.
"Mark" was out walking down Nutley Lane in Donnybrook at around 6:45am when he encountered a cyclist on the footpath "travelling at speed". He put his elbow out to "protect himself" which hit the side of the cyclist, but "not enough to move him off his bike in any way".
Mark said the cyclist then proceeded to "punch him eight or nine times", causing him to be knocked to the ground.
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He shared a photo of his injuries to RTE Liveline which Joe Duffy described on air, saying: "It is horrific, your face is battered. There's blood all over your face bar your chin. It's all around your two eyes, down your nose.
Mark told Joe: "Since the pandemic I go out for a walk every morning. I was out this morning and was very close to the RTE campus. I was walking down Nutley Lane just past the junction where St Vincent's Hospital is, going down Merrion Road on the right hand footpath.
"I saw this cyclist coming towards me on the footpath. He was travelling at speed. He was looking at his mobile phone so he wasn't looking at where he was going.
"As he approached me I had very little time to do anything so I put my elbow out to the side of me to protect myself. As he went past me the end of my elbow hit the side of him but it wasn't enough to knock me down or to move him off his bike in any way."
Mark said the cyclist went past him but then started to shout.
He said: "He then turned around and cycled back until he was level with me and started shouting at me again. I just turned to him and said 'look, I'm walking on the footpath, you shouldn't be on the footpath and I only put my elbow out to protect myself'.
"And he started screaming at me and saying did I want to fight. I said 'what?' and then he raised his arms, clenched his fists and punched me in the face.
"I didn't retaliate, I just raised my arms to protect my face. I took eight or nine punches to the face I got knocked to the ground and while I was on the ground I got hold of one of his legs and he started screaming down at me to let go or he'd stamp me on my head so I obviously let go.
"He then just went back to his bicycle, got on and cycled off."
Mark said his jaw is in some pain but his injuries thankfully are "nothing terribly serious".
He said: "At the time I wasn't in a lot of pain. Since I've cleaned myself off, my jaw is sore when I eat or drink. My lip is the size of a rugby ball and I have a number of cuts on my face. Thankfully nothing terribly serious.
"I didn't go into hospital. Thankfully I didn't bang my head so I didn't go in. Rightly or wrongly, a lot of people have told me I should have probably gotten checked out.
"I seem to be okay other than my face not looking as pretty as it usually does."
He described the cyclist as "Irish, in his 20's, 5"9 or 5"10, broad shoulders, slightly stocky build, sallow skin, shortish brown hair."
A garda spokesman said: "Gardai are investigating a report of an assault on a man that occurred at approximately 6:45am on Wednesday, 22nd June, 2022, in the Nutley Lane area of Dublin 4.
"The injured man received non-life threatening facial injuries that did not require hospital treatment at the time. No arrests have been made at this stage of this investigation which is ongoing."
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