Free McMuffin causes McMayhem

Hundreds of free-breakfast hunters flocked to their local McDonald’s yesterday to avail of the fast food giant’s offer of free mcmuffins to all who turned up before 10am at one of its 89 outlets across Ireland.

Demand was so high local newspaper the Tallaght Echo reported that gardaí were required to direct the larger-than-normal volume of traffic into one of its restaurants in the Dublin suburb.

A spokesperson for the Garda Press Office was not in a position to comment on how many gardaí were required to manage traffic due to the promotion.

It is the second time McDonald’s held the promotion offering either a free bacon and egg mcmuffin or a free sausage and egg mcmuffin.

The same promotion last year saw over 60,000 units of the breakfast product handed out for free.

Many on Twitter were quick to compare the turnout at fast food outlets across the country to polling booths.

“Polling booths very quiet this morning while opposite can be said of fast food outlets,” one Sligo-based observer wrote.

“Voting cards full of greasy fingerprints,” another said.

“So the polls are showing a high percentage of votes across Ireland for McDonalds,” another said.

The fact that #FreeBreakfastFriday was trending on Twitter ahead of the general election also did not escape attention.

Anyone else get there free mcmuffin breakfast this morning from @McDonalds ? Had to get a cappo 2 😂😊😂 #delish pic.twitter.com/sjfZtP5IQC

— Ems🍀 (@EmsbemysEmma12) February 26, 2016

“If Ronald McDonald ran he’d be Taoiseach. Couldn’t be worse than the clowns we have already,” a tweeter said.

However, many also questioned why the multinational could not have directed food giveaways to homeless people instead.

The company says it serves over two million eggs each year, all of which are Irish and free range, sourced from Greenfield Foods in Co Monaghan.