Chests swelling with PRIDE

It wasn't all that long ago when paper crepe hats were the coolest way to support your team come championship time. Thankfully that has changed. Wearing your colours has taken on a whole new meaning, says Michael Moynihan

THE NEXT time you're walking through the Insa-Dong area of Seoul, don't be surprised to see someone proclaiming their loyalty to the Lily Whites with an eye-catching T-shirt.

Said garment comes from pride.ie, a small Irish company which is changing the way GAA fans show their county of origin. The day of the poorly designed, low quality T-shirt is done, if Pride's Shane O'Donnell has his way. When Dubliner Shane became a casualty of the IT slowdown he decided to go into business for himself, so he began designing, manufacturing and selling GAA T-shirts in April 2003. "I'd seen the amount of generic T-shirts and tops around and felt people would like something relevant," he says. "So I looked at designing tops for GAA fans."

His background in graphic design helped: " The football design is pretty straightforward, but I went for something different in hurling and camogie: the hurleys, helmets and sliothars all lent themselves to being incorporated into a more heraldic-type graphic."

There were one or two teething problems - the original Mayo design had to be altered because "green and red are tricky, they look great together if you get them right, but if you get the wrong shades ..." - but now the process is pretty streamlined. "I draw up the designs and send them as an EPS file to the printer, who make a stencil from my design and screen print it onto the shirts by hand," he says. "I spent several weeks doing up the original designs and redesigning them until I was happy; I'm currently working on several more generic designs."

In technical terms O'Donnell acknowledges transatlantic influences: "I used the Berthold City font for lettering because the general look I was aiming for was that kind of American college image."

"I reckoned that kind of look would be popular when I saw all the US college T-shirts around, not to mention those People's Republic of Cork T-shirts, which are also very good."

That American link worked out in other ways, with the US accounting for roughly one quarter of Pride.ie's sales and O'Donnell making friends in faraway places: "I've made contact with hurling clubs in places like Milwaukee and St.Louis, which you wouldn't be places you'd associate even in America with Gaelic games."

In a gesture taking him above and beyond the call of duty for a clothing manufacturer, on the day of the interview he was awaiting delivery of a consignment of hurleys from Kilkenny for one of those hurling clubs.

The website gallery also shows that the shirts have turned up at the final of the Gaelic football league in the Cayman Islands, but even more distant customer is the owner of an Irish pub in Tokyo who intends dressing his staff in the T-shirts.

No word yet on the reaction of Japanese salary men to being served beer by someone in a T-shirt with DEISE or YELLOW BELLY emblazoned across the chest.

Another quarter of sales are made to British customers, and Ireland accounts for the remaining half.

Not surprisingly, successful counties are the bigger sellers: "Kilkenny ad Tyrone sold well last year," O'Donnell explains. "The Kilkenny top in particular is very popular. Other good sellers are the two Dublin tops, Cork and Galway."

However, fans from the smaller counties needn't fret, as everyone is now catered for; O'Donnell nods ruefully at the memory of the strident overtures made by Fermanagh fans in particular when they discovered that their county wasn't represented at an earlier stage in the companies development.

"When I started I covered about half the counties in Ireland, and obviously I focused on the bigger ones. Those Fermanagh lads soon put me right on that."

He's also aware of a potential market in the club sector. If a club approaches him "I'll design a vintage T-shirt along the lines of our range and sell to them at wholesale price which they can then give/sell on."

The county range itself is as much tribal as factual, with designs declaring REBEL, DUB, TRIBE and UNLAOISED, as appropriate. There is a couple of tongue in cheek designs, bearing the slogans BOGBALL and STICKFIGHTER, while KISS MY ASH is on the drawing board for the future. One of the biggest sellers in that particular department is the BIFFO T-shirt. Though the acronym might be less than complimentary to residents of Offaly, it's a brisk seller. O'Donnell surmises that some may have been bought as ironic gifts.

The company operates through its website, www.pride.ie , which enables O'Donnell to keep his stock levels down, but he acknowledges the need for expansion. "I'm looking for investment and I'm also interested in getting the T-shirts into shops", he explains. "Camogie is covered, but I'm interested in moving into areas like hooded tops and children's clothes, maybe crossing to cover provincial rugby as well."

The website also promises future developments in areas like road bowling, puc fada and handball, though some innovations may be more immediate; for example, the blue and white Laois T-shirts feature 'Leinster Football Champions' badges on the sleeve. No matter how avant garde the T-shirt design, champions still have to be acknowledged.

GAA dream ticket is just that ...

Picking the dream present for a Gaelic games fan is a no-brainer because what everyone would really, really love is a seat at Croke Park with their name on it, right?

Yes. But, tough, you can't have one - even if you're minted! There was such a massive waiting list for the 10-year seats that are currently being renewed, that you haven't a hope of getting even one of the 'club term' tickets, which guarantees you an annual ticket for the All-Ireland finals.

Apparently there was a waiting list of 1,800 alone for the premium seats (which get you your own spot at HQ all-year round) despite the fact that they cost a whopping €10,800!

Still, there are plenty of other Gaelic games present options outside of the obvious jerseys, books and DVD combos.

OPTION A

In case you haven't noticed, the GAA has become seriously sexy in the past decade and, off the pitch, it is uber-cool to be seen, not only on the terraces but in the nightclubs, wearing non-official GAA T-shirt like those offered by trendy, independent web-sites such as www.nutmegclothing and www.pride.ie

The latter offers shirts with logos like 'Kiss My Ash' and 'Bogball' as well as county-related ones. We particularly like their 'BIFFO' version but note with disgust that there is no 'BUFFALO' one to include out Laois brethren.

Certainly www.pride.ie has the coolest hurling T-shirt du jour - and one which will have particular resonance for anyone who ever went to University College Cork, whose mascot it incorporates.

It is grey with a skull and crossbones logo on the front, but naturally the crossbones are actually crossed hurleys. T-shirts like these are not cheap but they are certainly different and be warned - you need to order them soon to get them in time for Santa's sack.

How the GAA finally became trendy

Cliona Foley reveals why Croke Park should be indebted to Tommy Lyons for helping to achieve something they've tried in vain to achieve for years.

ARSEBOXING. You won't be too surprised to discover that this word is not officially listed in the Oxford English Dictionary. Even its inventor, one Thomas Lyons Esq., probably couldn't define it and in making his famous *utterance, little did he know how quickly it would become part of the GAA lexicon and popular Irish culture.

Still, the GAA should be indebted to the Dublin manager and his lexical acrobatics for helping to achieve something which Croke park officials have battled so unsuccessfully to achieve for years. Yes folks, the denizens of central council may yet read it and weep but it's true: the GAA has finally become trendy!

How do we know? T-shirts. Or rather streetwise independantly-produced T-shirts with irreverent GAA phrases and images which are being snapped up quicker then several young entrepreneurs can produce them. The fly in the face of 'offeeshul' County Board productions which is exactly why cool young Gaelic fans can't get their heads through their collars quickly enough.

A little 'Arseboxing' number taking the mick out of Dublin's team sponsors and Lyon's memorable invention has understandably become the cult item to be seen wearing on the Hill this summer.

It is the brainchild of a young advertising executive Joe collins and his mate Luke McManus. Collins works for AFA O'Meara and McManus is a producer in RTÉ, but they also have a small sideline called 'Nutmeg Clothing' which produces tongue-in-cheek T-shirts with sporting connections.

Bizarrely, Liverpool's signing of Titi Camara a few years ago was their impetus. McManus, a Liverpool fan, wanted something with Camara's image on the front of it and when he couldn't find one suggested Collins design one. Their initial print run of 80 quickly sold out and four years later they sell a handful of exclusive T-shirt designs, mostly soccer related.

Inevitably Collins, a Hill 16 loyalist and Parnell Park season-ticket holder, turned his attention to the Dubs and they have produced a different 'Dublin' shirt for each of the past four summers. 'Dub Vibrations (h16 on the back) was the original and long since sold out. Then came a particularly naughty number, a clever take on British clothing giant's logo (fcuk) and their beloved neabours from Boyneside!

'Jacks are Wild', emblazoned with a large colour playing card, was last season's variation and this year, after an approach from Dublin fanzine/website 'Reservoir Dubs', they came up wit their ingenious take on Lyons' vocabulary.

'We agonize over every detail, that's why we just produce one a year, Collins says, pointing to the fact that a tiny copyright sign which is 'tl' and that the Jacks Wild one incorporated the three castles.

It's in-jokes like this which make them so popular among the crowd he meets up with outside Gaffneys before the games, where they always pick up another sale or two.

"We wanted to be able to wear something which showed our allegiance but was a bit more stylish than the county jersey, something which was still trendy enough to get you into a nightclub," McManus explained.

"It's amazing all these companies who get all this exposure from the GAA. Young people like to show they're independent of all that corporate stuff and basically we've just designed stuff we want to wear ourselves."

"If we're making the GAA a bit trendier then we're glad to do our bit!" McManus quipped. "They should probably be paying us, though we're not holding our breath! The boys at Nutmeg [www.nutmegclothing.com] are not the only ones who have literally cottoned on to the fact that discerning young GAA fans are dying to make ironic fashion statement while showing their county allegiances.

One eponymous website has a massive variety of clothing (including babygros!), emblazoned with the memorable declaration: 'People's republic of Cork'. For several years now Munster games have been dotted with Rebel fans wearing this gear and it's latest version summarizes their creativity humorous and defiant stance to the rest of the country: 'La Republica popular de Cork'.

Another company producing GAA-themed T-shirts is www.pride.ie whose 'Bog Ball' and 'Stickfighter' shirts are particularly clever. This is literally a one-man band: sole trader Shane O'Donnell, a Dublin based graphic designer and animator, who set up his web-based T-shirt business eight months ago. "I hardly ever wear an official GAA jersey, O'Donnell explains."

"The old 70's O'Neills tops, now they're really nice and sometimes you might find one second hand but I hate the material int e modern ones, they're not something I'd wear to the pub'

He identified with Irish T-shirt company 'By the Factory Wall' who produced the cleverly logoed 'Northsider/Southsider' and 'Cailín/Buachaill dana' fashion tees of recent years and having seen UK soccer website 365 produce themed shirts thought something similarly irreverent might appeal to GAA fans.

He's also producing a series of casual T-shirts in county colours. "The 'DUB' shirt is the most popular and I'm trying to expand to cover 17 counties at the moment" he reveals.

It's a trend that should delight the GAA, proof that 21st century youth culture has embraced their games and left the bri-nylon/furry hat/hairy hang-sanger image behind.

GAA fans always had a penchant for witty All-Ireland-Day banners (none better then Offaly supporters pithy 'Yabba-Dabba-Dooley!') and even camogie is trying to vamp up itsimage with a corporate sponsorship appeal taglined 'Chicks With Sticks'.

With flagpoles now banned from Croker where better to make your point then on your chest. The traditionalists, of course, will hate them.

Just as the sight of intercounty players wearing white boots or funky hairstyles freaks them out, they'll view it with deep suspicion, particularly as it smacks of influence from that 'foreign game'.

Commercially, it was a marketwaiting to explode but of course if that happens, its raison d'etre will immediately cease.

A cult item loses its appeal once everyone has one so if your lucky enough to have an 'Arseboxing' T-shirt, keep it clean 'cause it is very likely to become a collectors' item ... if not one which will ever end up under a glass box int he official GAA museum on Jones's Road.

However, in some areas design and the GAA make uneasy companions, in
particular the horribly over-ornamental players' jerseys and the
primitive merchandise material with which fans bedeck themselves.
Step up Shane O'Donnell, a young designer and GAA fan, whose GAA
streetwear - available through his website, www.pride.ie - is simple
in concept and successful in execution.

O'Donnell has designed a range of GAA t-shirts with a difference -
they look great. The most straightforward of his ranges are those
representing a county's football or hurling team. These are
hand-printed in the county colours and feature an icon of either a
football or two hurleys crossed behind a helmet in a quasi-heraldic
device.

A subtle system of stars denote how many All-Irelands a particular
county has won, and so the Dublin football shirt features two large
stars and two small ones, representing their 22 titles.

The lettering style and general configuration of the graphics on the
t-shirts are suggestive of classic American sportswear; the main font
is the classic 1930 slab serif Berthold City, which O'Donnell uses in
outline for some counties, depending on the base colour.

This American inspiration gives a tongue-in-cheek element to the designs,
lending an aura of international kudos to Maigh Eo and An Clar.
As well as these basic t-shirts, O'Donnell has produced others
displaying single-word monikers based on county nicknames, such as
Rebel for Cork fans and Royal for Meath fans. For some, GAA will
always be bogball and stick fighting; at least now it's better
dressed.

lisa.godson