Camels and armchairs and swans oh my! The weird and wonderful blockages that appear on Irish roads

There's a WHAT on the road!?

Traffic came to a standstill on the M50 this morning as reports emerged claiming that a rogue armchair was causing a major road disruption, the like of which hadn’t been seen since The Great Chaise Longue Blockage of 1948. Ask your Grandparents...

It’s not understood why there was a lone armchair on the M50 – perhaps one disgruntled commuter wanted to make some sort of deep and meaningful ‘you’re-not-going-anywhere-so-you-might-as-well-get-comfortable’ statement? Or maybe the chair was occupied by one deluded man pretending to steer while making silly car noises with his mouth?

Reports of an armchair blocking the left lane of the M50 southbound between J6 Blanchardstown and the Westlink Bridge. More to follow. — Independent.ie (@Independent_ie) February 10, 2014

Whatever the reason for the recliner's appearance, this incident importantly rams home the point that this is exactly the reason why people shouldn’t be allowed to keep armchairs as pets. The bizarre incident got the JOE office talking about some of the other weird and wonderful phenomenons that have manifested themselves on Irish roads over the years, and so here is a small selection of some of our favourites which, for some strange reason, are mostly animal-related. We can't explain it either.

Swans on the M50

Disrupting traffic – it's a cygnet-ure swan move. A single swan got motorists in a flap and caused significant traffic disruption in Dublin in October 2013 when he plopped himself down on the busy Junction 6 ramp off the M50 at rush-hour and refused to move for an hour and a quarter between 8.30am and 9.45am.

The gardaí declined to move the animal forcefully and ended up diverting traffic around the swan who had connivingly positioned himself near the end of the ramp causing delays in the area.

Cows... also on the M50

Keep moo-ving along, nothing to see here... Commuters who were driving along the M50 back in July 2013 may have thought their eyes were deceiving them when they spotted two cows staring back at them from the back of a VW Golf.

Now, while the Golf is a roomy enough vehicle, the poor animals didn’t look particularly comfortable crammed into the back seat; the driver of the car in question obviously had no access to a trailer and made a rushed on-the-hoof decision to put them in the back. But hey, rather than milk all these cow puns for all they’re worth, let’s just agree that it’s an udder-ly ridiculous sight to see on the road and moo-ve on, shall we?

Camels in Finglas

Humps ahead... In another bizarre bit of traffic news, back in October 2013, AA Roadwatch had to warn Dublin drivers about loose camels just off the M50 in the Charlestown area of Finglas. Here at JOE we’re no stranger to ‘loose animal’ warnings from AA Roadwatch but we certainly couldn't recall a ‘loose camel’ warning being issued before. The warning, which is below, was quickly followed by a class picture by a passing motorist, Brendan Hurley.

DUB: Reports of camels loose in Charlestown, take care in the area particularly on North Rd & St Margaret’s Rd http://t.co/nqdTLmlPQj #AARW — AA Roadwatch (@aaroadwatch) October 10, 2013

 

@Conor_Hurley @aaroadwatch Here's the evidence pic.twitter.com/kpl5EhpaD9 — Brendan Hurley (@brendanhurley) October 10, 2013

The camels were eventually recaptured and the roads of north Dublin were safe once more... until the whole armchair thing this morning of course.

A pyramid of perfectly-placed cardboard boxes

Who could forget Pat Mustard’s inconveniantly-placed but impeccably-arranged cardboard boxes? The barricading boxes did their best to disrupt Dougal’s morning milk run, but at least one commuter of the cloth knew how to expertly deal with the obstruction... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bF-T1FB3Yno