The GAA are taking legal action against a Donegal anti-immigration activist who has been selling an unauthorised Erin Go Bragh GAA jersey on the Irish Patriot Store website. Niall McConnell, who has run in both local and general elections in Donegal on an anti-immigration platform without getting elected, has advertised the jersey on social media using both the GAA’s name and AI images of Croke Park.
In recent days, McConnell’s Facebook page has used former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s comments about African immigrants as a pretext to promote the jersey. In a post featuring the viral video of Ahern speaking during a bye-election canvass, the clip is interrupted by an advertisement whose voiceover begins, “This isn’t just a GAA jersey. This is your declaration. Ireland belongs to the Irish ...”
The association has moved to prevent O’Connell from using the term GAA, which is trademarked. In a statement to The Irish Times, a spokesperson confirmed that a legal letter was sent to McConnell on Wednesday.
“The GAA are the holders of a range of commercial rights including crests, media clips, and a plethora of other trademarks. The GAA have a long-established reputation, and we have built up significant goodwill associated with our name and other rights. Numerous sponsors and partners of the GAA contribute financially to the association and help maintain and promote our sports across the country, in turn they get access to set rights like media clips, crests, tickets etc.
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“Occasionally we are alerted to brands, companies or individuals who are not partners, sponsors or affiliated to the GAA using assets to promote their own products and services. These types of activities can constitute ambush marketing as well as trademark and copyright infringement, by inferring an affiliation that does not exist.
“These companies and individuals are exploiting the logos, crests and other rights for their own commercial gain with no benefit to the GAA or its members. We must act in these cases to protect both the good name of the GAA and also that of our sponsors and partners who do contribute to help the running of our games both nationally at a local level. This is what we are currently in the process of doing for this case.”
McConnell frequently posts anti-immigration rhetoric online and is the leader of Síol na hÉireann, the self-styled “Pro-life Nationalist Party”. He has been approached for comment.
