We're in mid-August and that can only mean one thing. All over the world, we're going to see signs like 'Mayo for Sam' or 'Kerry for Sam' painted on things like houses, cars, sheep, llamas or whatever else you can think of. It's an inevitability like death and taxes.
At least it was until this year. In what we can only assume will be the first of many incidents, the planning authorities in Co. Kerry have clamped down on this behaviour after a couple of Kerry fans went rogue and decided to put up a 'Kerry for Sam' sign on their land in the centre of the village of Moyvane without planning permission.
Billy and Joan Moloney this week told the Kerryman newspaper how the county council had issued them with a notice to remove the sign that measures 26 inches by 18 inches and stands on a five foot pole. The County Council insist that the sign is an 'unauthorised development' and must be taken down under threat of legal action that conceivably result in €12 million in fines or two years in prison.
However, the Moloney's insist that the sign is adding to the atmosphere in the north Kerry village and they are refusing to remove the sign, claiming that the signatures on the orders are illegible. We're not sure if that defence will suffice but nonetheless they have our full support.
If you can paint Mayo for Sam on an elephant in India then surely you should be able to put Kerry for Sam on a sign in Moyvane.
