The closer it gets to the All-Ireland Final, Mayo fans are coming up with more imaginative ways to show their support, while in Donegal, ‘Jimmy’s Winning Matches’ has become so popular it’s even spawned a follow-up.
They’re cranking up the hype in Mayo
The folks in Donegal might have had a week extra to tap into the buzz of the All-Ireland Final build-up than their fellow finalists, but if they think that gives them some advantage in terms of who can provide the most ridiculous photographic evidence of ways to show their support, they can think again.
They’re forgetting that, while they haven’t exactly been successful, Mayo folk have plenty of experience when it comes to this sort of thing.
Like a family bringing down the same artificial tree and decorations every Christmas, followers of James Horan’s army only have to rummage around their attics and sheds and before you know it, there’ll be green and red slatted houses, flocks of green and red sheep and number plates labelled 12-MO-SAM visible all over the county.
With only a week and a half to go until the big game, they’ve been cranking up the support in the west and after a quick trawl through the interweb today, we came across some gems we thought well worth sharing with a wider audience.
There’s the obligatory Mayo-4-Sam bales of silage…
Pic via Mayo News Facebook Page
The baffled-looking dog in an oversized Mayo jersey…
Pic via Twitter/Nicola Ní Graith
And, our favourite, some clever marketing on behalf of O’Hara’s Bread…
Pic via Twitter/Heather O’Hara
The bar has been raised Donegal fans, let’s see what you got (Seriously, send them into @joedotie on Twitter, to our Facebook page or to shout@joe.ie and we’ll do our best to give them some increased exposure).
Jimmy’s having nightmares?
One area where Donegal can definitely claim an advantage over Mayo, so far at least, is in the musical department.
While we’re sure there are many more songs out there from both counties that haven’t yet assaulted our ear drums, we have only heard of two competing songs so far – ‘Jimmy’s Winning Matches’ and Mike Denver’s ‘Mayo are back’ and the Donegal anthem is the better effort by a country mile.
Such is its popularity in fact – nearly 320,000 views on YouTube – that’s it actually spawned a follow up video where the singer, ex-Revs frontman Rory Gallagher, is plagued by nightmares in which his Senegal bandmate Jimmy has turned to the dark side and pledged his allegiance to Mayo.
The video, which can be seen below, is pretty funny and Donegal fans will be relieved to find out that it was all just a bad dream. We wish we could say the same about Mike Denver’s effort but sadly, we can’t.
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