Just when motorists thought they'd seen every conceivable reason for traffic delays on the way to work, gardaí in Co Wicklow were this morning called upon to deal with a monkey on the motorway.
AA Roadwatch confirmed that it received a call to its traffic hotline at 8.15am from a member of the public reporting that there was a monkey on the southbound carriageway of the N11 at Kilmacanogue.
"By 8.35am we found out there was a place nearby that keeps monkeys, so we thought it could be true," a spokeswoman said.
"By 8.45am the gardaí in Bray confirmed there was a monkey on the road but he was caught, caged and cleared by 9am."
It later emerged the monkey, a capuchin named "Gina", had escaped from her home in a nearby aviary where she lives with eight others, including tamarinds, squirrel monkeys and her sibling capuchin.
Owner Edward Drew told The Irish Timeshe immediately went to the rescue when contacted by gardaí.
"She got out this morning, I don't know what time. But I got a call to say 'one of your monkeys is on the road'. We went down with the quad and a net and caught her straight away. She was tired and completely disorientated. Someone had pulled up in a Jeep and given her a banana so she was eating that."
Motorists had stopped their cars to take in the extraordinary morning scene on one of the State's busiest rush-hour stretches of road.
"There was nearly a three-mile tailback," Mr Drew said.
"I think the people up front knew what was going on but the people behind hadn't a clue and were wondering what was going on. I think at that hour of the morning people would say to themselves 'what did I just see?'."
"The capuchins run along on all fours with the tail up so they could look like a cat maybe."
Gina recovered this afternoon with a high protein lunch and sugar drink later to restore her energy, Mr Drew added.
"She has no cuts or bruises, and she didn't cause any accidents," he said.
Asked if capuchin monkeys make good pets, he replied: "No."
AA Roadwatch reported tailbacks in the area throughout the morning.