{"id":282560,"date":"2026-01-13T20:05:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T20:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/282560\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T20:05:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T20:05:06","slug":"judge-who-called-cyclists-a-nightmare-was-fined-for-failing-to-provide-breath-test-to-garda-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/282560\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge who called cyclists \u2018a nightmare\u2019 was fined for failing to provide breath test to garda \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Circuit Court judge who this week described cyclists as having \u201cbecome a nightmare\u201d<\/a> in Dublin was previously fined \u20ac600 after pleading guilty 14 years ago to failing to provide a breath specimen at the request of a garda.<\/p>\n

Judge James O\u2019Donohoe was fined \u20ac600 under the Road Traffic Act 1994 at Clifden District Court in Co Galway<\/a> in 2012 after he pleaded guilty to failing to comply with the request for a breath specimen from a garda on August 19th, 2011, at Ballyconneely, Clifden.<\/p>\n

Under section 12 of the 1994 Act, a garda who is of opinion that a person \u201cin charge of a mechanically propelled vehicle in a public place\u201d has consumed alcohol, may require that person to provide a specimen through a breathalyser. <\/p>\n

Section 12.2 provides that a person who refuses or fails to comply shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding \u00a31,000\u201d, or the equivalent in euro, and\/or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months.<\/p>\n

This week Judge O\u2019Donohoe criticised cyclists in Dublin when reducing his \u20ac50,000 award to cyclist Ioan Giurgila for a brain injury to \u20ac10,000, along with 80 per cent reductions relating to \u201cuplift\u201d awards for soft-tissue injuries, resulting in total damages of \u20ac17,628 and Circuit Court costs.<\/p>\n

The judge decided Mr Giurgila (50), a construction worker of Hibernia Way, North Strand, Dublin, was mainly responsible for the incident that happened in darkness at 6am on a September morning in 2020. <\/p>\n

A dashcam video from the motorbike driven by Mark Finnegan, Forest Park, Swords, Co Dublin, revealed evidence of negligence on his part and contributory blame on the part of Mr Giurgila, the court was told. <\/p>\n

The cyclist was not wearing a helmet or high-vis safety vest, had no lights on his bike and gave no signal of intending to turn right out of a bus and cycle lane into the path of traffic.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou never know with cyclists what they are going to do or anticipate what they are going to do,\u201d Judge O\u2019Donohoe said. \u201cCyclists have become a nightmare in Dublin.\u201d<\/p>\n

The judge said he was entitled to take judicial notice of his own experiences as a motorist in Dublin.<\/p>\n

He took into consideration Mr Finnegan beeped his horn at Mr Giurgila after seeing him behave erratically in the joint bus-cycle lane without having reduced his speed to a level where he might have been able to avoid a collision.<\/p>\n

The judge\u2019s comments about cyclists in Dublin sparked strong criticism from cycling groups, including the Irish Cycling Campaign.<\/p>\n

When contacted by The Irish Times about the reaction to his remarks, Judge O\u2019Donohoe declined to comment.<\/p>\n

Several judges, including some who regularly cycle to work in Dublin courts, reacted on Tuesday with dismay to his comments. <\/p>\n

They spoke on the condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n

The remarks \u201cunfairly make judges seem out of touch\u201d, one judge said. Judges are \u201creal people\u201d, of whom a large number cycle to work, and are \u201cnot a homogenous group\u201d.<\/p>\n

The judge also expressed concern that Judge O\u2019Donohoe said he was entitled to take \u201cjudicial notice\u201d of his own experiences of cyclists as a driver in the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is not what judicial notice means. Cases must be decided on their facts. Every case is different. I don\u2019t decide cases as a cyclist, and he should not decide them as a driver,\u201d said the judge.<\/p>\n

Another judge who cycles to work stressed each case before a judge must be decided on its own facts.<\/p>\n

Drivers and cyclists \u201cneed to look out for each other\u201d and, while not excusing \u201creckless\u201d cycling, drivers need to be aware that cyclists are more vulnerable road users. <\/p>\n

\u201cSome drivers do not understand the imbalance between them and cyclists. The risks are much greater for cyclists if things go wrong,\u201d said the judge.<\/p>\n

Another judge said he has observed \u201can explosion\u201d of cyclists in Dublin over recent years and believes sustainable forms of transport should be encouraged.<\/p>\n

He has seen some cyclists weaving between vehicles \u201cseemingly oblivious to traffic\u201d but, over the years, has also seen more cyclists using lights, wearing helmets and high- visibility clothing. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think people are more conscious of safety,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He was also concerned about Judge O\u2019Donohoe\u2019s reference to taking \u201cjudicial notice\u201d, saying judges \u201cshould not be generalising from their own limited experience\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Circuit Court judge who this week described cyclists as having \u201cbecome a nightmare\u201d in Dublin was previously…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282561,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[956,9,10,2529,52,18,13,14,1878,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,11697,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-282560","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-an-garda-siochana","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-breakingnews","11":"tag-cycling","12":"tag-dublin","13":"tag-eire","14":"tag-featured-news","15":"tag-featurednews","16":"tag-galway","17":"tag-headlines","18":"tag-ie","19":"tag-ireland","20":"tag-latest-news","21":"tag-latestnews","22":"tag-main-news","23":"tag-mainnews","24":"tag-news","25":"tag-road-safety","26":"tag-top-stories","27":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115889591004890786","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282560\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}