Not so easy on the mayo!

There might be a bit of a squeeze on mayonnaise stocks in Offaly this week, after a whole pallet of it was inadvertently used as surface dressing on Birr's Townsend Street early this morning. The incident happened sometime before 8am, when an unsecure rear door came open as a lorry passed through the Pound/Townsend Street junction and a pallet full of squeezy plastic bottles of mayonnaise was deposited on the road. "The road surface there wouldn't be the best," Sergeant Dardis of Birr Garda Station explained between chuckles. He also confirmed to the Offaly Independent no looting occurred at the scene. In a fine show of 'salad-arity' workmen carrying out roadworks on behalf of the local council next to the mayonnaise spillage quickly came to help make the area safe at the request of local Gardaí. Despite the incident getting lots of radio airtime after being included in an AA roadwatch report, particularly from Ian Dempsey on TodayFM and Hector O'hEochagain on 2FM, the debacle didn't upset the morning for any locals. In fact many of them remained unaware that a catastrophe of such laughable proportions had happened at all. Martin Kearns from Townsend B&B said he just got a glimpse of the clean up on his way back from the cash and carry, while staff at Costcutters said they only knew it happened after hearing about it on the radio. Mr Kearns did say however that he got a call from the mayonnaise lorry driver later that morning apologising for any inconvenience caused to locals and businesses on the street. Unilever Food Solutions, the company that distributes Hellmann's mayonnaise in Ireland, looked into the incident on the Offaly Independent's behalf. They say however it looks likely it wasn't a case of 'Bring out the Hellmann's' for Birr yesterday morning, as all pallets were delivered to their destinations intact.