Punishing Dundalk FC for a fan flying a Palestinian flag is devoid of any logic.

Punishing Dundalk FC for fans waving a Palestinian Flag during a match against Croatian side Hajduk Split is a gross example of selective myopia. The town is reeling, and there are damn good reasons why. 

The size of the fine is maddening and the club can ill afford it. To compare, Villarreal were fined €12k when someone threw a banana at Dani Alves; an action designed to hurt and offend, and it did. The waving of a Palestinian flag by Dundalk FC supporters was designed to do neither, and it didn’t. 

It should be noted that Dundalk FC were fined for two offences, one for an inappropriate flag and the other for standing in the stadium. The latter comes under health and safety which is taken very seriously: In a highly comparable case from earlier this year, Bayern Munich had part of the stadium closed for fans standing. They too were issued with a fine, €10k, for inappropriate flags. How the fine is proportioned between the two offences will be interesting to see. 

But I’m struggling to see the logic behind issuing the fine at all. I am no UEFA, LOI, FA, ETC... aficionado; but it doesn’t take one to see the myriad of comparable situations that have not incurred the wrath of footballing authorities.

The road between Dundalk and Glasgow is a well worn track. A small army makes the regular pilgrimage to matches of varying importance and follow them across Europe. I’d dare say, if there were as many committed Dundalk FC supporters in Dundalk as there are Celtic supporters, club finances wouldn’t be taking so hard a hit. And in the bags of every platoon that travel to Celtic games are the tricolours that those of us watching at home use to spot the Irish in the crowd. And if Celtic were fined for every tricolour...well you can start to see the argument that this was a politically motivated fine. 

And it’s not just a Dundalk or Celtic thing; from what I can see flying a national flag as a signal of solidarity is part of the fabric of football support. Since the news broke about the fine social media users have been quick to point to many other instances of national flags flying as signs of solidarity with something or other. There are so many it hardly seems an uncommon occurrence. That’s why I’m struggling to understand how UEFA have acted to issue a fine at all.   

There is already a strong belief that the problem is that flying the Palestinian flag was politicised, whether it was the fans that flew the flags in the first place or UEFA’s disproportionate response that really introduced that political question remains to be seen. The weighting of the €18k fine between the two offences could be telling in this regard. 

I don’t view the flying of a national flag as an overtly political act; the national flag does not belong to the government, but to the people. They are visual signifiers for where someone is from and if we know the country represented, we might know something of what that country has experienced. It is not a description of an individual or even a group’s political, religious or any other opinions. 

It is not clear to what degree the conflict in Gaza has played a part in the fine or its scale, if it did at all. But considering the size of the fine and so many other situations when flying a national flag went without comment, it seems likely. But, there is no logic in presuming that the flying of a national flag is an antagonistic act based on recent conflict. If you follow that logic then every tricolour flown would be viewed as an anti-British act, or the flying of a Union Jack and Stars and Stripes would be anti-Iraqi, and so on until presumably, hopefully, someone realises how foolish this line of thinking is.  

There are examples where UEFA have issued fines when a national flag has had a political slogan on it, or when it has been used in a way that is intended to cause offence to the people of that nation.  Celtic were fined €50k last year for a tricolour with Bobby Sands on it being flown at a match against AC Milan. Earlier this year Russian-side Zenit from St Petersberg was fined €15k for fans burning a German Flag. The German Football Association was fined €25k when a neo-nazi flag was flown at their Euro 2012 match against Denmark.

However, it is difficult to find examples of national flags being flown in isolation, without some sort of potentially offensive slogan or action that has incurred a UEFA fine. 

€18k is a considerable sum for the club. There are already calls for the fans to dig deep and help pay the fine. But it would be a stomach churning response for the town raise funds for this fine and not for the countless resource-starved charities and community groups that desperately need money.

So if UEFA do not revoke the fine, in the face of every other national flag that has appeared at a UEFA match, despite issuing lower fines for worse acts and what appears to be their ignorant and illogical presumption that flying a Palestinian flag in Dundalk was designed to inflict harm or offend, then let’s be clear and determine exactly why they are punishing anyone at all.

Masculinity versus Make-Up: In a period of flux, how big an impact will cynical advertising be likely to have ?

When David Beckham’s bulging Armani advert was posted on billboards and busses earlier this year it caused quite a stir. Some complained it was gratuitous while others just delighted in the spectacle of it all. But a quick glance at magazines and TV screen shows that there was really nothing unusual about a toned man displaying muscles to shift a few units for the sponsors. Yes, the male body has been commercialised.   

The advertising of men’s grooming products is on the up and only the finest specimens are chosen to advertise them. Even skin tone, defined muscles, chizzled jaw’s, intense eyes and a heavy brow are the common features that men are seeing every day. And it’s not just in models and movies, news readers, TV presenters, politicians, rock stars and footballers are all do a stint in the make-up chair before making public appearances. With the increase in the quality of our TV screens anyone who stands in front the camera stands to have every imperfection exposed.

If it is true that celebrity trends trickle down to the increasingly primped and pruned masses, then in coming years we are likely to see generations of men incorporate the application of make-up into their daily routine.

By Mimi Haddon Getty Images

The men’s cosmetic industry is thriving; companies like Clinique and L’Oreal have finally struck gold on a hereto untapped market and it’s an easy transition for them to make. To a large degree, the ground-work has been laid. For over 100 years cosmetics companies have employed the finest scientists and experts to brew potions and lotions to suit a wide variety of skin types and individual feature needs. It’s a simple rebrand, repackage, change of marketing strategy and hey presto it’s ready to roll out.

Many men rebut projections for the future of the sex. Some argue that because the male ideal physique is traditionally rugged and burly that these marketers cynical play on male vanity will not work. But they would be missing the point - the aim is to convince that these qualities will be enhanced, making them more striking, more sexually appealing and more affirming of masculinity.

There is an art in applying make-up and its greatest successes are the most subtle. No one is suggesting that men will start utilising the rainbow of eyeshades to match their manbags any time soon. Men’s cosmetics are more tactful; it is about covering up blemishes and the use of shadow to highlight the contours of the face. The product ranges of the most popular men’s lines like Calvin Klein and Clinique are all geared towards shine correction, concealment and enhancement. They have not yet dipped into the more decorative items.

The state of play is changing, but perhaps, not as quickly as cosmetics companies would like. The men’s fashion industry in the UK is now worth more than €25bn a year and rising; men’s cosmetics in the region of €870m.

The main buyers of ‘guy-liner’ and ‘manscara’ are the under 24’s and the market is expanding.  Beauticians are increasingly offering their services to men, there are hundreds of YouTube tutorials of how to achieve the no make-up look and – in short men are plugged into the beauty trade.

As fourth generation feminists continue the battle over unrealistic depiction of perfection having a distorting effect on young women’s body image – the question is what effect are these paradigms of manhood having on young impressionable men? 

The simple answer would be - it’s making them more conscious and concerned about their appearance. Not such a bad thing really, well not yet anyway. The industry has not yet reached the destructive proportions that marketing to women has had but the method of delivery is the same. Convince you that your appearance is inadequate and offer you a quick-fix solution.

The question becomes are men somehow immune to the influence that the exposure to images of perfection that populate the media? How will men fair when their insecurities are turned against them and the pressure to look a certain way becomes the norm?

One of the areas where it will really hit is when it comes to employment.  When men start to lose out on the jobs front because they are not aesthetically up to scratch, how will they react? There are host of recent surveys by recruitment companies that say a clean shaven, well groomed candidates is far more likely to gain employment than one that is not. The pressure increases when you suspect you are suffering personally from societies' ugly side.   

When we talk about pressure that is put on us to look a certain way, it is worth remembering that much of the pressure is self inflicted. While personal hygiene and general grooming are always welcomed and style and self-confidence celebrated, there is no pride in falling prey to astute marketing and succumbing to the pressures of insecurity and vanity that has been assimilated into ‘femininity’.  It is hard to detach, but it is not impossible and the result can be more rewarding.  

Nothing is constant and just as femininity has changed and adapted through generations, so too will masculinity. But this time, what it is to be a man is being reshaped to fit in with our evolving cultural values in a context where most of the major pitfalls of marketing influence are as obvious as the billboards that promote it.  


First published in Seamus Magazine June 2012

Turning 30 will always be a milestone, even if the road it's on changes.

“Age is just a number, it doesn’t really mean anything,” assures a friend. And yet here we are discussing how to celebrate my 30th Birthday. And besides, she can easily say that, she’s not turning 30 for another 10 months.

Planning these celebrations inevitably leads to questioning what exactly is so great about this particular anniversary. It’s a milestone, the passing of every decade is and although these annual inevitabilities only carry the significance we attribute them, leaving your twenties behind and entering into your thirties does seem to carry some extra weight. 

My family are the first to start commenting on it; the things I should know, own; wear and “not be at” now that I’m “turning the big three-O.” All said in that jokey way where the “but, seriously” is silent. My friends tell me to pay no attention; I take to the internet for solace. 

“21 is the new 30” reads a headline. Relief; But it’s not true, because turning 30 is something more, it is a passage into maturity.

When celebrities, particularly women, turn 30 the media mark the milestone with interviews and commentaries asking how they feel about it, what it might mean for their look and their career. And when our time comes we end up asking the same questions of ourselves. In the spotlight or not, the preceding months can contain a mixture of excitement and anxiety; and with all this talk of change it hard to keep the issue at bay. 

 Anne Hathaway and Beyonce recently turned thirty, and both gushed about the experience. They saw it as a badge of maturity and were happy to enter this new phase. Being 29 is an odd age in a way; you’ve done so much and are practically 30 without the title. Although saying I’m in my 20s is technically true, I don’t feel entirely honest, it really only feels about 10% true.  

However, some celebrity stunners like Kim Kardashian have spoken of their age anxiety. Psychologists Anne E. Barrett, Cheryl Robbins in Florida State University identify three main sources of age anxiety; fertility, declining attractiveness and health. But it is the latter two that cause the most distress and women suffer more of it than men. 

I don’t usually make a big thing of my birthday, but I have to concede that it does feel like the ending of an era, and it would be a shame to not hold a funeral for my twenties. 

I’ve decided on a simple celebration, close friends going out for dinner and then to the local late bar.  And instead of asking myself, what am I going to wear? I’m asking what I can wear?  Does my hemline have to drop an inch or two? Easy on the eye-shadow? 

 For all but few, by 30 the inherent, vibrant beauty of youth has passed. The beginning of a battle against the signs of ageing has begun; close inspections of foreheads for wrinkles, and eyes for crows-feet increase. And I can’t help but being more captivated by those pseudo-scientific terms that anti-ageing creams throw at you. 

Beauty experts say that prevention is better than cure. There’s no cure for wrinkles except Botox or surgery and it’s too soon for that. But it’s time to pay attention and start a routine that will keep it at its best, damage to skin will not be so easily repaired now. Heavy make-up ages you too, so the older you get, the older it makes you look. So from now on, less means more. 

Health-wise turning 30 is a pivotal point, especially for smokers. A recent study in the UK shows that women can cut the risks of tobacco- related death by 97% if they quit before 30. I stubbed my last cigarette out years ago but everyone should do some form of physical activity, and it needs to be tailored to age. Those that do tend to have lower mortality rates. 

For over 30s the World Health organisation recommends either 2 ½ hours of moderately strenuous activity or 1 1/2 hours of intense activity a week; and that is just for the minimum maintenance. There's much more work to be done if improvements are to be made and to delay middle age spread.  It might be time to pick up the pace on my nightly walks and start a new hobby or two.

In my twenties I created an image of who I wanted to be by 30; and like me many people created this image of the future in the boom years, basing it on projections of never ending opportunities. The only way was up. Life as a 30-year-old now is quite different to how most people who spent their carefree twenties riding the Celtic tiger thought it would. 

Laughing about how unrealistic our expectations were at 21, my nearly-30 friend confesses “I thought I would walk straight into a well-paid job after college and planned to be earning about €50k a year by the time I hit 30. But at least graduating at the dawn of a recession has taught me not to plan too much, and just focus on enjoying life and being grateful for what I have.”

So I didn’t shoot up the career ladder and instead of weekends in Europe and trips to New York I’m grateful for a few pints and later turning a friend’s kitchen tiles into a dance floor. And it’s difficult not to feel a little disappointed and frustrated at times.  

Your twenties are fun and can be wonderfully carefree by comparison to what comes later in life. But the experiences you have in these glory days should strip you of your naivety and prepare you for what is to comes next. So having seen Ireland, friendships, relationships and jobs go from boom to bust and back again over the past ten years, as well as promises from my mother that I will see it again someday, I feel more knowledgeable, capable and confident that I can cope with whatever comes my way. 

I head out the night before the big day, and half-way through my birthday celebration, my friend hands me a big leather book – a photo album of me, my whole life and so many of my friends had contributed to it. I was overwhelmed, not just at the thoughtfulness of the gift, but because looking through those photos I realised that most of the great things that happened to me were totally unplanned, unexpected and completely off course; and that some of the hardest times have made me stronger, smarter and better prepared for the future.        

As such I’d know this all along, but only really felt it then; and my thirties really began to feel more like a blank canvas, now standing on a sturdier easel. 

And no social-guillotine fell when I hit 30. There is still frivolous fun to be had, wild nights out and duvet days. There’s just a little more work to be done on the serious side of life and with the knowledge gained the results are more successful.

In general, there are signs that things in Ireland are picking up. But even if it doesn’t, at 30+1 month years-of-age, I can see how much I’ve learned, how much better I understand the world and how to navigate it. And I’m looking forward to the next ten years now I’ve an idea how much more is to come and that I’m prepared to make the most of it. 

They’re the best years of your life I’m told. And I believe it, they could be now that I know what to do with them. So now I’m telling my 30-minus-a few-months-old friend not to worry; that age is just a number, but if she thinks about it, it is one of the best.