GARDAÍ HAVE LAUNCHED an investigation into the assault of two drag artists on a Cork city centre street yesterday.

The incident happened as thousands thronged the street as they celebrated the annual Cork City Jazz Festival. 

“Gardaí responded to an incident of assault that occurred at approximately 12:30am on Sunday, 26th of October 2025 on Oliver Plunkett Street in Cork City.

“A man aged in his 20s received non-life threatening injuries as a result of this incident.

“Investigations are ongoing at this time,” a spokesman said. 

The incident, which involved well known Cork drag artists whose stage names are Krystalqueer and the Queen Lucina, on the busy street was captured on video.

The footage showed an initial assault in which a man kicked the artists. A second image allegedly showed a man punching one of the artists in the face. This caused Krystal to bleed and it was captured on phone footage.

In a video shared on a social media platform, Kyrstal and Lucina, spoke about what happened to them in the incident. 

Lucina said: “We wanted a moment of real talk because we were just assaulted on the street after pulling off a really successful show and going to take some videos to promote our event last Thursday night.”

Krystal explained: “We were on Oliver Plunkett Street just filming a little reel when a guy came up behind us and started kicking us. He ran off. Then all of the other guys on the street started applauding him and cheering him on.”

Lucina explained that she began to chase the attacker down the street but then heard Krystal “screaming in panic”.

Krystal added: “These guys came up in my face, and they were filming us and laughing at us. I was filming back to get their faces when another guy clocked me across the face with his phone.”

Lucina said that Krystal at this point began bleeding “quite heavily”. 

“We weren’t in anyone’s way. We weren’t agitating anybody. We were just two drag queens having an awful lot of fun together, and unfortunately, us existing and enjoying ourselves was an invitation for people to physically assault us,” Lucina added. 

Krystal said that the most “sickening part” of the incident was that people cheered when they were attacked and no one intervened to help. 

Adding: “It was definitely very scary, very humbling. Honestly, it’s also been a reminder as to how important what we do is. We’re going to keep enjoying ourselves and being very openly queer.”