A vicious attack reportedly carried out by three Irishmen against a Woodside Indian family was strongly condemned Tuesday by Pat Hurley, local City Council candidate.

The attack took place Sunday night as the family was returning to their apartment on 59th Street and was reported prominently Tuesday in both the Daily News and the New York Post.

The Post reported that the father in the family was a Sikh cab driver who wears a turban.

The cab driver, his wife and his cousin, all U.S. citizens, "were pummeled by the trio of thugs," as the couple's two frightened children aged 8 and 10, looked on, the Post reported.

Citing law enforcement sources, the paper reported that the three men called the cab driver "bin Laden," and threatened to kill him if he and his family did not leave the country.

Gregory Hodge, a passing pizza delivery man described the attackers to reporters as "three Irish fellows," scared off the attackers.

Hodge said the three were "pretty intoxicated." He said they ran off when he started screaming at them.

Hurley, a Cork native, Republican and running for the City Council 26th district election in November, described the incident as "disgraceful."

"Such an attack, if perpetrated by Irish people, or anybody else for that matter, is totally inexcusable,” Hurley said.

Hurley, an occasional opinion columnist for the Echo, said that he had lately been concerned about people hanging out on streets outside bars in the 26th district, which includes Woodside.

He said that the smoking ban in bars had resulted in groups of people who had been drinking being outside the bars and not inside them and this, he believed, was contributing to rowdy street behavior by some individuals.

Gregory Hodge concurred. He said the attack was not an isolated incident.

"You see this a lot in this neighborhood. You get a few drunk guys and they get beer muscles.”