More to AIB/GAA ad than meets the eye?

This week’s Mediahuis Irish regional newspaper’ column.

Michael Commane

Standing at a bus shelter earlier this week I spotted an advertisement that caught my eye.vI felt there is something about it that could easily be misread or misinterpreted.

We see the backs of two young people, probably sitting on the bonnet of a car. Above them in large lettering is written IT’S OUR COUNTY and below, IT’S IN OUR BLOOD. Below that again, in much smaller print #THETOUGHEST. On the left bottom corner GAA logo explaining the advert is supporting the football All-Ireland championship and beside that, AIB logo stating that they are the official sponsors.

The word blood made me nervous as did the word toughest. Using the word blood in any sort of metaphorical manner makes me nervous.

Just look what happened in Germany less than 100 years ago when they were led to believe their blood was the purest and the toughest. It ended in the slaughter of tens of millions of people.

There is a subliminal hint, there is something special, something better and superior about the Irish and their county, and specifically those who play GAA. 

Also, that they are ‘the toughest’. What about if you don’t play GAA and are not Irish, nor tough, does that mean there is nothing special about you?

I can see you saying I’m being hyper sensitive, that I’m reading far too much into a commercial ad that is trying to attract people to go to games and open accounts with AIB.

The moment we start making one group better than another we are heading down a dangerous road. I can still remember as a child genuinely believing that Catholics were different, maybe better than Protestants. The evil and hatred that has been caused by one group of people thinking they are better than another is the trick that powerful people use to fool and cajole us into thinking the worst of other people. 

Isn’t ethnic cleansing all about getting rid of people, who have different blood than we have?

I have not heard a murmur of complaint about the ad. Why is that? How is it that some things manage to garner publicity, and then there are other issues to which we close our eyes. Once the seeds of an outcry appear, the matter can gain traction and it becomes a national issue.

In writing this column I spoke to people about the ad. Some felt I was overreacting but a psychiatrist agreed with me, as did her academic husband. Interesting.

The GAA/AIB advert could be manipulated by those who love to hate the other. Of course we all want ‘our team’ to win. Nothing is ever simple, language is nuanced. 

In these scary days when the world is lurching towards right-wing authoritarianism, the slightest misinterpretation can snowball down a dangerous road. 

We need to be extremely careful with our words; advertisers, sports organisations, all of us. We should remind ourselves of that proverb: ‘There’s many a slip ’twixt the cup and the lip’.