Limited edition Sultans of Ping jersey raises €10k for charity

A limited edition jersey by football supporters trust FORAS, which pays tribute to rock band the Sultans of Ping, has raised more than €10,000 for a Cork-based Down Syndrome charity.

The Board of FORAS (Friends of the Rebel Army Society) joined with Sultans drummer Morty McCarthy to present a cheque for €10,163 to Down Syndrome Ireland Cork at the Field of Dreams at Curraheen.

Nikky Slattery, operations manager at Down Syndrome Cork’s Field of Dreams, said that the donation will help fund three key programmes: an upgrade to their charity shop, which underpins a retail training programme for adult members; updating laptops for students taking part in education programmes; and continued support for the employment support team.

The official launch of the jersey was held at Coughlan’s Bar on Douglas Street – where the first prototype of the jersey hangs framed on the wall, signed by the Sultans of Ping.

The striped O’Neill’s shirt is in the green and red FORAS colours, emblazoned with The Sultans of Ping logo across the chest and an embroidered FORAS logo as its badge.

FORAS chairman Darren O’Keeffe said demand for the shirt was huge when announced last October, with orders coming in from Ireland, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

He said: “The response to the jersey was phenomenal. We had a much smaller target in mind in terms of how much we were hoping to raise - within an hour of orders going live we realised our expectations were far too modest.

“There are six of us on the board and we had a few very busy weeks, from managing orders and requests to working with O’Neill’s to produce the jerseys.

“We had boxes of shirts stored in our houses and spare rooms were turned into mail processing centres – we bagged, tagged, and posted each and every order ourselves. It was a lot of work, but the support we received was fantastic.”