PLAYER’S please.

"John players cigarettes created figures of Gaelic footballers and hurlers to advertise their products. They used the slogan ‘on all grounds- PLAYER’S please’. They were a common sight in pubs years ago. A little rarer was a figure of a footballer and hurler together as the same ornament. All figures were kitted out in their county colours and when there were two together they featured two different counties. The ornament I have features a Galway hurler beside a Mayo footballer. 2017 was almost the perfect year for the two counties with Galway winning the hurling All Ireland and Mayo narrowly beaten in the football decider. However both counties had the player of the year, Joe Canning, in the hurling and Andy Moran in football. This piece represents our love of the GAA with cigarette advertising which is not appropriate these days. It has a relevance to the years gone by with the counties involved. The addition of the modem cúl cards to the old advertisement makes for a nice momento of Galway’s 2017 win."