Today’s Hospital Pass is all Donegal, with crazy cartoons and a thriving black market economy coming to the forefront of attention in the north-west.
Ah, we see what you did there
There’s something about important matches that allows GAA fans get away with behaviour that would normally be the cause of great embarrassment at any other time of the year.
How else do you explain painting sheep or cars in the county colours, composing what are usually forgettable GAA anthems or, God forbid, watching Up for the Match on All-Ireland Final weekend?
Continuing this time-honoured tradition in Donegal this week, the Donegal Democrat features a colourful caricature based solely around the most blatantly obvious pun one could think of in relation to the opposition at Croke Park on Sunday.
Pic via Donegal Democrat
Telling their readers that Donegal ‘have the bottle’ and are going to put a ‘Cork’ in it this weekend is normally a joke that would, or at least should attract derision, but it probably provoked howls of laughter in the county this week such is the mood of goodwill circulating around in anticipation of the big match.
We jest, of course. We’re prone to a terrible pun or six ourselves now and again and it is all just a bit of harmless fun after all. In fairness to Jarla, the artist behind the cartoon, it’s fairly well put together as well, although Rory Kavanagh mightn’t be too happy about his oversized head, even if he might need it to see beyond some of the giants in the current Cork outfit.
So long as he and his teammates can put a ‘Cork’ in the Rebel challenge this weekend, we doubt whether Rory or anyone in Donegal will care too much about the content of the cartoon afterwards.
Black market boom in Donegal
While the caricature is all in good fun, there is nothing humorous about the thriving black market sale of unofficial Donegal replica gear that has hit the north-west in recent weeks.
According to the Irish Times, some shameless hoodlums have been seeking to get rich of the back of Donegal’s success and have been flouting fake Donegal jerseys and other gear carrying the Donegal crest and GAA logo without permission from Donegal GAA or the head honchos in Croke Park.
“It has been brought to our attention that some clothing companies are producing replica Donegal GAA jerseys, t-shirts, polo shirts, flags, etc, using the Donegal GAA crest/logo,” County Board secretary Hugh Martin Ferry told The Irish Times.
“The Donegal GAA crest is patented and Donegal GAA has not granted permission to any parties to use our crest without permission.
“Also, the GAA brand has been used without consent, and the GAA in Croke Park have been made aware of this, and will monitor the situation. We would urge supporters to purchase only official GAA products as Donegal GAA gets a share of the profits raised in the sale of official items.
“By purchasing an official Azzurri Donegal GAA jersey etc. you are contributing directly to Donegal GAA. We would ask supporters to inform us immediately of any non-Azzurri Donegal GAA items of clothing you may see for sale. Legal action may be taken against such unauthorised sale of Donegal GAA gear, and the use of the patented Donegal GAA crest.”
Despite the County Board’s call to arms, in all probability we will see quite a few of the rogue garments in Croker on Sunday, although it will be easy to pick them out when they start physically disintegrating as soon as the rain falls.
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