Was one of Zelenskyy's convoy cars in Dublin left soiled by an egg attack?
Did protesters throw eggs at a car in Zelensky's convoy in Dublin during the EPC summit, and were they pro-Palestinian activists, as viral posts claim?
True
Real footage of a soiled convoy car — but police say nothing was thrown at it.
The footage is real, but the egg-attack story is not. Sky News correspondent Stephen Murphy filmed a soiled car in Volodymyr Zelenskyy's Dublin convoy on 12 November 2026 during the European Political Community summit. Ireland's Garda Síochána said no eggs or objects were thrown; reporting citing Murphy says a passenger was sick out of the window.
GenuineClaims
✓ 1 true · ✕ 1 falseOne of the cars in Volodymyr Zelenskyy's convoy arrived in a soiled state during his visit to Dublin.124
“One of the cars in Zelenskyy’s convoy arrived in a bit of a soiled state”
This is the poster's own footage, shot in Dublin on 12 November 2026 while Zelenskyy was there for the European Political Community summit. The clip shows a black sedan with residue along the rear door and quarter panel, and the caption describes exactly that — no more. The decisive point is provenance: the person who filmed it is a named Sky News correspondent posting on the day, and the vehicle's presence in the security detail fits the summit. Independent reporting confirms the car was soiled and that the cause was not an attack. The post's wording is careful and matches what the footage shows. A reader should note that the caption never says eggs, vomit or anything else about the cause — it simply describes the state of the car, and that description holds up.
The soiling on the car was the result of it being pelted with eggs.235
The egg explanation does not come from the original post — Murphy's caption says only that the car was 'in a bit of a soiled state'. It was added by outlets and social-media users who republished the clip, largely Russian state and state-aligned media, according to our review of coverage. The Garda Síochána, Ireland's police service, stated that no eggs or other objects were thrown at the motorcade. Reporting that cites Murphy's information gives the actual cause: a passenger in the car, not Zelenskyy, was sick out of the window. That account fits the smear pattern visible in the footage. Two independent strands — the police denial and the reporter's own explanation — point the same way, which is why we rate this false with high confidence.
Still open: The input does not identify individual posts or articles making the egg claim, so we cannot assess how far that specific wording spread or whether any single outlet originated it.
What was posted
XA short handheld video posted on X by Sky News correspondent Stephen Murphy. It shows a black sedan in what the caption identifies as Zelenskyy's Dublin convoy, with visible residue smeared along the rear door and rear quarter panel, security personnel and a hi-vis officer in the background. The post asks readers to accept that a convoy car arrived in a messy state, without saying why.
“One of the cars in Zelenskyy’s convoy arrived in a bit of a soiled state”
Posted on X by a named Sky News correspondent on the day of Zelenskyy's Dublin visit. The caption is deliberately vague about the cause; the egg explanation was added by others who shared the clip.
Who posted it
XAccount check
Estimates from public signals — account age, posting pattern, audience — not a judgement of the person behind the account, and separate from whether this post is true.
What stood out
- @SMurphyTV is the verified-by-employer handle of Stephen Murphy, Ireland Correspondent for Sky News, based in Dublin and listed with this handle on his official Sky News author page.
- Long, traceable journalism career: multimedia journalist at RTÉ (2015-2018), previously reporter/anchor at TV3 (now Virgin Media), Sky News Ireland Correspondent since October 2018 — corroborated by RTÉ Archives and IMDb broadcast credits.
- Recent activity is genuine original reporting: his 12 Nov 2026 X post on the Zelenskyy convoy in Dublin being pelted with eggs was picked up by multiple international outlets (Gândul, DSNews, TASS-sourced reports).
- No fact-check hits, correction scandals, or misinformation flags found for this account or journalist.
- Profile fields in the submitted data (bio, followers, creation date, recent posts) were all empty — a data-collection gap rather than a suspicious signal; third-party records show ~12k followers and an established 2010s-era account.
- Platform verification currently shows false in the supplied metadata, but his own bio/coverage indicate he has been X-verified previously; Sky News' official account routinely cites @SMurphyTV as its correspondent.
Signals (8)+
- Follower count approx
- 12000
- Employer
- Sky News
- Official profile crosslink
- Yes
- Prior employers
- RTÉ; TV3/Virgin Media
- Notable news coverage
- Nov 2026 Zelenskyy Dublin convoy incident; 2023 Dublin stabbings/riots; Brexit, COVID coverage
- Fact check history
- None found
- Posting cadence
- Unknown (no recent posts supplied)
- Metadata completeness
- Low
Account checked November 14, 2026, 15:00 UTC
The media
Video✓ What is genuine
The video itself is genuine: real footage of a real car in Zelenskyy's Dublin convoy, shot by a named correspondent on 12 November 2026. What is not genuine is the egg-attack explanation layered onto it by others.
The tells
- ●●○ Supporting signal The smear pattern runs along the rear door and quarter panel in a way consistent with liquid thrown or blown from an open window, not with impact marks from thrown objects.our visual review
- ●●● Strong signal Our AI detector scored the clip as not AI-generated with very high confidence (AI-generated score about 0.017) and found no deepfake signal.our detector
- ●●● Strong signal The footage is traceable to a named Sky News correspondent posting on the day, which anchors it to a real event and a real camera.provenance check
Synthetic-media detector
Detector ranThe claim stands or falls on whether the media is real, so the detector ran.
Scores are the detector’s estimate for the file as uploaded. A low score does not rule out editing, a spliced caption, or footage shown out of context — those are judged above. Model v3.
How we checked the media
- Reviewed the footage frame by frame for physical consistency: night-time handheld video, a black sedan with residue smeared on the rear door and quarter panel, uniformed and security personnel and a hi-vis officer in the background, ordinary street surface.
- Ran our AI-generation detector (Hive v3) on the video; it scored the clip as not AI-generated with very high confidence and found no meaningful deepfake signal.
- Traced the clip to its earliest known upload: Stephen Murphy's X post on 12 November 2026, the day of the Dublin summit.
- Compared the depicted scene with independent reporting on the same event from Irish and Ukrainian outlets.
Sources
6 sources reviewed- 1Stephen Murphy post: 'One of the cars in Zelenskyy's convoy arrived in a bit of a soiled state' ↗
X / Sky News (Stephen Murphy) · x.comUntiereduntiered — treated as signal only, never decisiveEvidence
The original post and footage by Stephen Murphy, establishing what was actually claimed and when it was posted.
- 2В Ірландії спростували, що кортеж Зеленського закидали яйцями ↗
Podrobnosti.ua · podrobnosti.uaUntiereduntiered — treated as signal only, never decisiveEvidence
Irish police denied eggs or objects were thrown, and Murphy said a passenger vomited out of the window.
- 3Не яйця, а блювота. Журналіст пояснив, що забруднило автомобіль кортежу Зеленського в Дубліні ↗
Gordonua · gordonua.comUntiereduntiered — treated as signal only, never decisiveEvidence
The journalist clarified that vomit, not eggs, soiled the car.
- 4Irish police explain 'someone was sick' on Zelensky's car after claims it was egged ↗
Irish Star · flipboard.comUntiereduntiered — treated as signal only, never decisiveEvidence
The car was covered in vomit and police denied it was egged.
- 5В Ірландії заявили, що кортеж Зеленського закидали яйцями – що сталося насправді ↗
Informator.ua · informator.uaUntiereduntiered — treated as signal only, never decisiveEvidence
The Garda Síochána denied objects were thrown and attributed the soiling to a sick passenger.
- 6Zelenskyy announces largest ever POW exchange ↗
The New Voice of Ukraine · english.nv.uaUntiereduntiered — treated as signal only, never decisiveContext
Zelenskyy was in Dublin on 12 November 2026 for the European Political Community summit.
Further reading
- 4Irish Star Irish Star's report gives the clearest plain-language account of the police denial and the vomit explanation.
- 3Gordonua Gordonua explains how the journalist who shot the footage clarified what actually soiled the car.
- 6The New Voice of Ukraine Places the motorcade in context: Zelenskyy's Dublin visit for the European Political Community summit and his meetings there.
The full story
The kernel of truth here is simple: a car in Volodymyr Zelenskyy's motorcade really did arrive at a Dublin venue with a visible mess on its rear door and panel. That is what Sky News correspondent Stephen Murphy filmed and posted on 12 November 2026, the day Zelenskyy was in the Irish capital for the ninth European Political Community summit.
Murphy's caption was deliberately restrained: 'a bit of a soiled state'. It did not say what caused the mess. But a soiled car in a presidential-style convoy invites a guess, and the guess that spread was eggs — a familiar frame for anyone who has followed protests against politicians. Outlets and social-media users, largely Russian state and state-aligned media according to our review, republished the clip with that explanation attached.
Ireland's police service, the Garda Síochána, then said plainly that no eggs or other objects had been thrown at the motorcade. Reporting that cites Murphy's information gave the less dramatic cause: a passenger in the car, not Zelenskyy, was sick out of the window.
The episode is a useful example of how a true image can carry a false story. The footage was real, the caption was accurate, and the wrong part was supplied by people who were not there. The car was messy; the attack was invented.
Kernel of truth
A car in Zelenskyy's Dublin convoy was genuinely soiled on 12 November 2026 — the mess was real, but it came from a sick passenger, not thrown eggs.
Timeline
November 12, 2026
Zelenskyy visits Dublin for the ninth European Political Community summit, where he also meets US envoys Witkoff and Kushner. 6The New Voice of Ukraine
November 12, 2026
Sky News correspondent Stephen Murphy posts footage of a soiled car in the convoy, captioned 'a bit of a soiled state'. 1X / Sky News (Stephen Murphy)
November 12, 2026
The clip is republished with an egg-attack interpretation by outlets and users, largely Russian state and state-aligned media. 5Informator.ua
November 12, 2026
The Garda Síochána denies that eggs or any objects were thrown; reporting citing Murphy says a passenger was sick out of the window. 2Podrobnosti.ua
How it was framed
The video is genuine footage of a real convoy car taken by the person who posted it. The false element was added by others: an egg-attack explanation attached to accurate footage whose caption never claimed one. That is genuine content placed in a false context.
- Missing context. Murphy's caption says only 'a bit of a soiled state'; the egg explanation appears in republished versions, not in the original post.
- “Visual proof”. The clip of the smeared car is presented as itself the proof of an attack, with no independent confirmation that anything was thrown.
- Emotional language. The phrase 'pelted with eggs' in republished coverage carries a stronger, more hostile charge than the footage or the original caption supports.
The original post is by Stephen Murphy, a named Sky News correspondent, on X, dated to 12 November 2026. The egg-attack framing appears in later coverage and reposts, largely from Russian state and state-aligned media, according to our review. We have no verified information about the individual users who amplified it.
Bias
Leans mildly mocking / diminishing portrayal of Zelenskyy's Dublin visit. The correspondent's understated, wry wording ('a bit of a soiled state') is a factual observation rather than a partisan attack, but its coyness invited the egg-attack reading that hostile outlets then pushed. The post itself makes no political argument.
Bias describes how the post frames its message — the slant of the language, selection and emphasis — and is judged separately from whether the claim is true. A true claim can still be framed with a strong slant.
How we checked
41 s- 1
Searched for the clip and the phrases used around it, including 'Zelenskyy convoy car damaged video' and 'Stephen Murphy Zelenskyy convoy car soiled state'.
- 2
Searched for the police response: 'Garda Zelensky motorcade Dublin eggs denied passenger ill November 2026'.
- 3
Searched for coverage of the Dublin summit on 12 November 2026 to confirm the visit and the motorcade context.
- 4
Traced the earliest known upload to Stephen Murphy's X post on 12 November 2026.
- 5
Ran our AI-generation detector (Hive v3) on the video; it scored the clip as not AI-generated with very high confidence and no meaningful deepfake signal.
- 6
Reviewed the footage visually for physical consistency with the reported cause of the soiling.
✓ Claim checked✓ Media checked✓ Sources checked
Why 82% confidence
ModerateWe rate the central claim TRUE with high confidence because the footage is traceable to a named correspondent posting on the day and the vehicle's presence in the convoy fits the summit. We rate the egg claim FALSE with high confidence because a police denial and the reporter's own explanation point the same way. The headline band is MODERATE only because we found no formal fact-check of this specific clip; the police statement functions as an official correction, not a published fact-check.
Limits. We did not open the full articles in our source list page by page; our reading rests on the snippets and titles recorded during the check. We did not identify the individual reposts that first introduced the egg wording, and we could not independently interview the passenger or the security detail.
What we don’t know
- Which specific outlet or account first added the egg-attack wording to the clip.
- How widely the egg claim spread compared with the original, accurate caption.
- The exact number of people in the car or any details about the passenger beyond the reporting that one was sick.
- Whether any official statement addressed the incident beyond the police denial quoted in coverage.
Spot it yourself
Spot the fakeLooks suspicious, isn’t proof
- The footage is dark, handheld and low-resolution — that makes it harder to read, but phone video shot at night on a street often looks like this, and it proves nothing either way.
- The post comes from a single account, and a short clip with a vague caption can feel like it is hiding something. A careful caption is not evidence of deception.
- The car's mess looks dramatic enough to invite the egg explanation. A striking visual is exactly what makes a false explanation easy to attach — not evidence that the explanation is true.
The actual evidence
- The Garda Síochána, the police force responsible for the visit's security, stated that no eggs or other objects were thrown at the motorcade.
- The correspondent who shot the footage reported that a passenger in the car — not Zelenskyy — was sick out of the window.
- The original caption never says eggs; the attack framing was added by people republishing the clip.
- Our AI detector found no sign the video was generated or altered, and the clip traces to a named journalist on the day.
- 1
Read the original post, not just the reposted version.
Find the earliest version of the clip and check the caption word for word. Here the original said 'a bit of a soiled state' — no cause at all. The egg explanation was added downstream.
- 2
Ask who would have to confirm an attack.
If a convoy had been pelted with eggs, the police protecting it would have responded and local reporters would have seen it. Search for the police force's name plus the claim; here the Garda Síochána's denial is easy to find.
- 3
Look at the physical detail in the footage.
Ask whether the mess looks like impact marks from thrown objects or like liquid running down a panel. Smears along a door and quarter panel are consistent with a passenger being sick, which is what reporting cites.
- 4
Check whether the person who filmed it is named and present.
A named correspondent posting from the scene on the day is a strong anchor. Anonymous reposts of the same clip with a new caption are not.
Takeaway
A real photo or video can carry a false story. When a dramatic explanation is attached to genuine footage, check whether the explanation comes from the person who filmed it or from someone republishing it.
Questions people ask
Was Zelenskyy's car really egged in Dublin?+
No. Ireland's Garda Síochána said no eggs or other objects were thrown at the motorcade during Zelenskyy's 12 November 2026 visit. Reporting that cites Sky News correspondent Stephen Murphy says a passenger in the car was sick out of the window, which caused the mess seen in the footage.
Is the video of the soiled convoy car real?+
Yes. It is genuine footage shot by Stephen Murphy, a Sky News correspondent, and posted on X on 12 November 2026, the day of the Dublin summit. Our AI detector found no sign the video was generated or manipulated, and it traces to the journalist who filmed it.
What did Stephen Murphy actually say about the car?+
His caption read: 'One of the cars in Zelenskyy's convoy arrived in a bit of a soiled state.' He did not say eggs, or give any cause at all. The egg-attack explanation was added by outlets and users who republished the clip.
Who reported the egg attack?+
According to our review of coverage, the egg-attack framing appeared largely in Russian state and state-aligned media, including reports republished from Russian news agencies, rather than in the original post. We did not identify which specific outlet introduced the wording first.
How can I tell if a viral video is being misrepresented?+
Find the original post and read its caption word for word. Ask who would have to confirm the claim — here, the police — and search for their statement. Check whether the person who filmed it is named and was present. A real video with an added explanation is one of the most common kinds of misinformation.
Go deeper
- False context
- When genuine photos, video or audio are shared with a false explanation or backstory attached.
- Provenance
- The origin and history of a piece of media — who first posted it, when, and where.
- Garda Síochána
- The national police service of Ireland.
- Motorcade
- A procession of vehicles carrying an important person and their security detail.
- European Political Community
- A forum that brings together leaders from European countries for summit meetings; the ninth summit was held in Dublin on 12 November 2026.
People also search for
For educators+
- The original caption never mentioned eggs. At what point does a reposted caption become a new claim, and who is responsible for it?
- If a police force denies an attack but no fact-checking organisation has published on the clip, how much weight should a reader give the denial?
- Why might a dramatic explanation spread faster than a mundane one, even when both are attached to the same real footage?
About this check
- Platform
- X
- Posted by
- @smurphytv
- Posted
- November 12, 2026
- Age when checked
- 1–2 days old when checked
- Where it spread
- Ireland, Ukraine
- Audience
- UK & EU audience
- Language
- EN
- Status
- ● Post is live
- Verified
- November 14, 2026, 15:01 UTC
- Published
- November 14, 2026, 15:01 UTC
Reach. Sky reporter's video of the egged car (371 likes). The quote post blaming 'Paleidiots' has ~4,700 likes and the Visegrad24 'massive Palestine crowds' post ~8,000 (X syndication, 14 Nov). RT, RT India, Margarita Simonyan and EADaily spread it on 13 Nov.
This verdict was generated with AI from the sources shown. AI can make mistakes — check the sources before relying on it.
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