TV presenter Brendan Courtney attacked in Dublin: 'I got a boot right in my face'

Eva Osborne

TV presenter and fashion designer Brendan Courtney was attacked in Dublin city centre on Thursday night while he was walking home.

Courtney, known for presenting Wanderlust on RTÉ Two and The Brendan Courtney Show on TV3, told Joe Duffy on Liveline on RTÉ Radio 1 on Friday that he received kicks to the side and back of his head, as well as his face.

"I was walking home about 9 o'clock, crossing Queen St Bridge at the junction of Usher's Quay and Queen St near where I live. There was a car, three lads in it, one wound down the passenger window and said something at me," he said.

"I just said 'hello' back... Next of all from behind, the driver and the guy in the back jumped out, kicked me to the ground, kicked me in the head about five or six times."

Courtney explained that he was at A&E waiting to get a CT scan, after garda members advised him to get his head checked after the attack.

"I'm standing outside A&E, I'm having a CT scan, I'm actually okay but I got up this morning and my head was pounding, my face was sore," he told Joe Duffy.

"The cops were there in two minutes, they rang me today to check in and they told me to get my head checked."

Describing the attack, Courtney said three men got out of the car, but he thinks the third man got out and "pushed them back into the car".

"I don't know what was going on. It was just so surreal. They were stopped at the lights, like I don't think they were coming to find me or anything like that, I think they just got a notion and jumped out," he said.

"I was just coming from a gig so I was wearing particularly fancy clothes but I was going along minding my own business.

"What I did feel was a boot to the side of my head, a boot to the back of my head and boot right in my face.

"What you're indefensible against, and what really scared me, is I lived there for 15 years and walked that street 10 times a day.

"I know everybody on that street. It's a busy street, it's the quays of course, it's a thoroughfare. It's not the friendiest place of course and it's the city centre. You can't legislate against someone pulling up in a car, like you just can't protect yourself from that."