A judge in Cork has sent five men to jail for five months for dangerous driving after a sulky race on the Cork to Mallow road last May.

YouTube footage of the sulky race - a form of harness racing using a two-wheeled cart - shows how traffic was seriously endangered by the sulky racers and the entourage of cars that followed them.

The five men all entered guilty pleas and were banned from driving for six years. Despite the guilty pleas, Judge Olan Kelleher gave the men one month short of the maximum sentence possible to make an example of the quintet and discourage others from endangering the public in a similar fashion.

The race footage shows how the sulkies raced on the wrong side of the road and how the cars and vans that followed the race also drove on the wrong lane, coming close to trucks and cars and nearly causing accidents.

According to the Irish Times, a police officer told the court that it was very lucky that no injuries occurred as a result of the recklessness.

Here is the video: