Gardaí in Co Wicklow have caught three cyclists riding on a motorway and issued social media posts saying they understood the cyclist were Freds rather than Mamils.
It appears the post was an attempt at humour and it featured some details of the incident and a photograph - taken from a distance - of the cyclists on the grass verge beside the motorway.
However, when many of the messages left by members of the public were quite hostile towards cyclists, Wicklow Gardaí edited their original message and removed the reference to Mamils and Freds.
"This post is intended to highlight the dangers of cycling on motorways and not an attack on cyclists or an invitation to do so," Wicklow Gardaí said in its edited statement, adding the three cyclists were issued with penalty, or fixed charge, notices.
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"These cyclists were reminded that motorways are not for their use as they headed to Wexford this afternoon. They headed for the coast roads instead when advised. Stay safe and heed motorway signage."
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The original message stated: "These cyclists were reminded that motorways are not for their use as they headed to Wexford this afternoon. They headed for the coast roads instead when advised.
"We are reliably informed that non-lycra were cyclists are called Freds by the Mamils but they still shouldn't use the motorways! Stay safe and heed the motorway signage."
Stayin' Alive at 1.5, the safe cycling advocacy group that was instrumental in having the new offence of 'dangerously overtaking a cyclist' introduced in the Republic, said the Garda’s initial post was very ill-advised.
“The Facebook post put up by the Wicklow Gardaí referring to what are seen as the derogatory words of MAMILS and Freds does little to foster relationships between road users,” group founder Phil Skelton told stickybottle.
“Some of the unmoderated comments stoked
up by this post can be very damaging in terms of road safety.
“I think they now should right this wrong and use this as an education opportunity as we’ve seen from some police forces in the UK, where they engage with such commentary in order to educate other road users."
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