Not impressed with the antics of judge, haulier and cyclist

This week’s column in The Kerryman newspaper.

Michael Commane

’You never know with cyclists what they are going to do or anticipate what they are going to do.’

Words spoken by Circuit Court judge James O’Donohoe at a sitting where he reduced by 80 per cent the damages awarded to a cyclist, who was involved in an accident with a motorbike and suffered brain injury. The injured cyclist ended up with €10,000 compensation. The cyclist had no lights on his bicycle nor was he wearing a hi-vis jacket.

The judge’s words have caused an outcry across the country; the cycling community crying foul and the hauliers saying the judge was spot on.

The judge had no sooner opened his mouth when the media discovered the same judge was fined €600 for not providing a breath sample back in 2012. Judge O’Donohoe has made many unusual comments, putting it mildly. In 2024 he was accused of using inappropriate and derogatory language.

Counsellor Karl Stanley of the Dublin Cycling Campaign appeared on RTÉ News on Tuesday evening criticising the judge but I did notice on the clip that RTÉ showed, Mr Stanley was not wearing a helmet, while cycling. Cyclists are not legally obliged to wear a helmet but surely it’s wise and safe to wear one. 

On that same news deputy vice president of the Irish Road Haulage Association, Eugene Drennan agreed with what the judge had to say. Mr Drennan said that cycling lanes had empowered cyclists to feel entitled.

The comments/behaviour of the judge, the cycling campaigner and the road haulage deputy vice president have left me in a state of bewilderment, indeed, shock.

Judge O’Donohoe’s comment are pure nonsensical, Mark Stanley’s words are fine but his not wearing a helmet leave me speechless and Eugene Drennan’s words were almost non-words; a style of gobbledegook.

I’m cycling 71 years and I know first hand how dangerous it is to manoeuvre a two-wheeler the length and breath of Ireland.

Of course some cyclists behave appallingly as do some car and truck drivers, and the behaviour of all three is getting worse by the day, indeed, more dangerously by the night.

I’ve experienced chaotic and absurd design failures on a number of cycle paths but I’ve also seen cyclists behave extremely badly. Every day I see cars driving through red lights and I’ve seen trucks and vans travelling at dangerous speeds.

It’s close to jungle territory out there, it really is. 

Obviously there is not adequate policing but there is something more than that happening. Is it that we are getting to a stage where each one of us actually thinks and believes we can do what we like, we know best?

And that sort of arrogance has spewed out on to our roads? I wonder when did the judge or the haulage deputy vice president last cycle across the city and for the life of me I can’t understand what Karl Stanley is doing cycling without a helmet.

The government is talking about making the wearing of helmets mandatory for those on e-scooters. What about electric bicycles? Why not make helmet-wearing mandatory for all cyclists?

It’s all one big mess and all the current hullabaloo is pure proof that people are talking out of both sides of their mouths at the same time.

What’s new?