It seems the county has gone a bit mad with the paintbrushes ahead of Sunday’s All-Ireland football final
DRIVE THROUGH Donegal this week, and you’ll witness an entire county gone a bit mad, ahead of Sunday’s All-Ireland football final against Mayo. They’ve even persuaded Olympic sprinter Usain Bolt to wear a county shirt in support of the team and stand in Briton’s Pharmacy shop window in Donegal town. He’s only made of cardboard, but still.
(The real Usain Bolt, as we now know, is managed by Donegal man Ricky Simms, and promised on Highland Radio last month to visit the county as soon as his diary allows.)
It appears there isn’t a bridge, telegraph pole, shop, house or town in the county not decorated in the county colours. You shouldn’t leave your car unattended too long, or it might get painted: it seems a rule that every town and village must prominently display a green and gold car.
“Everybody has done something with their premises,” says Kathleen Kennedy. “The county is talking of nothing else only the match.” Kennedy is rummaging in a box at the Eurosaver Discount Store in Donegal town for three “2012 – Road to Glory” T-shirts.
If you’re from Mayo, it’s probably best to keep away from Donegal for the next week, or your blood pressure is likely to go north. You’re definitely advised to avoid Cavern Design, a printing company in the town centre. They’re so confident of a home victory they’re currently displaying a mock-up of a “winning” poster at the entrance to their shop. The poster depicts the Sam Maguire cup against a Donegal flag, with the words, “May 0-0, Donegal 1-12”.
In The Gift Gallery on the Diamond, owner Darren Williamson is sporting an eye-popping green and gold waistcoat, which he hasn’t taken off for days.
“I’ll be wearing it till the final,” he declares. “We’ll win by 15 points to 13. It’ll be close. I’m going to football matches a long time, and I have great confidence in this team. Being in the final lifts everyone’s spirits. It’s brilliant.”
The town’s Scotsman Bar used to be white. After Donegal made the final, it was repainted in vivid green and gold stripes. “Maybe we went a bit far,” says manager Barry Breslin, grinning. “But we thought it might attract a few people to the town. We’ll leave it like that now for all year, because we’re going to win, of course – by about four points.”
In Pettigo, several adjoining derelict houses in the village centre have been painted in the county colours. Someone has gone to the trouble of painting window boxes green for each window, and planting them with yellow pansies, to create a lovely ad-hoc piece of rural artwork.
In the Seán MacCumhaill GAA Social Club in Ballybofey, the club’s bar overlooks the pitch where the Donegal team have been training twice-weekly.
“Five thousand people have been turning up to watch them train,” says Simon McDevitt, the bar manager. “They’ll be back here again before Sunday.”
The talk is of tickets, the match, and the result. Martin McGowan reports that a pair of tickets are on sale at donedeal.iefor €500. "People are mad for tickets. But you'd have to meet the seller," he says. "Otherwise you're taking a chance, aren't you?"
“I was at the final in ’92, and I didn’t go home till Monday. You could say I had a few pints of milk,” recalls Tony Gillespie. As a club member, he has a guaranteed ticket for Sunday. The club’s tickets are already in the safe on the premises: this club has an allocation of 300 tickets.
“There’s no doubt they’ll win. They’ll win by eight or nine points,” says John McGinty. “Everyone is already going around like they’re on another planet.”
“Mayo will not know what to do on Sunday when they meet our team,” says McDevitt, who predicts they’ll win by “at least” six points.
This GAA social club, like many others around the county, will be showing the match on Sunday for those who can’t get tickets. “For every goal Donegal gets, there’ll be a free pint for everyone,” promises McDevitt. Is he serious? “Ah, we’ll have to do something all right,” he says.
Those gathered in the club note that while they’re thrilled Donegal is in the final, it’s also expensive for travelling fans. “People have been saving up,” reports Martin McGowan. “All the hotels we phoned in Dublin said rooms had to be taken for two nights: Saturday and Sunday,” McDevitt says. Friends of his will be paying €540 for two nights in a room in the Skylon Hotel that sleeps four. “That’s four in the one room. It’s nothing fancy.”
There are four windows in the florists in Ballybofey, each of them decorated with a football theme. There are teddies in county shirts, footballs in flower pots, and a silver cup with a piece of paper sellotaped to it that reads, “Sam 2012 for Donegal”. Even the window displaying wreaths and memorial flowers for graves is done out in green and gold.
“You have to make an effort,” laughs owner Mary Bogle. Her sister-in-law, Maggie Doherty, decorated the windows. “Donegal in the final is bringing a wee bit of good atmosphere into the county. It’s a small county, and we can do with all the good publicity we can get.” Bogle says the team’s success is already inspiring more young people to join clubs. “The numbers are already up at training,” she says.
At Lifford, flags are displayed right up to the border with Tyrone, and all across its long stone bridge. Don Brolly is in Geraldine Vambeck’s Central Bar. “We just can’t see them getting beat,” he says. “I predict they’ll be three points up at half time, and five points up by the end.”
“Hopefully this will put a bit of attention on Donegal,” says Garvin White, also drinking in the bar. “When it comes to the Government spending money, we’re ignored up here. You only need to look at the state of the roads and the potholes to see that.”
Aodhán Gallen (13) is on Lifford’s main street, making his way home with a packet of bunting he’s just bought. “It’s going to go up outside my dad’s house,” he explains. And he hurries off, to add yet another string of green and gold bunting to the thousands now flapping so hopefully all through Donegal, in advance of Sunday’s big game.
