Why GAA stars, farmers and firefighters are hot this year
A certain group of ladies from Yorkshire have a lot to answer for, judging by the ever-growing number of calendars featuring brave souls stripping off for charity.
The story of how the 'Calendar Girls' -- a group of middle-aged members of the Rylstone & District Women's Institute -- decided to bare all for a calendar to raise money for leukaemia research in 1999 inspired a hugely successful film and is now an equally successful stage show.
Now it seems you can't avoid clapping eyes on calendars featuring folk who have readily volunteered to bare all, or nearly all. Still, in the cut-throat world of charity calendars, pictures that are sure to grab your attention doesn't do any harm for sales, as Ryanair knows only too well.
The Irish airline is well-known for its controversial charity calendar featuring female cabin crew who pose in their underwear every year to raise funds for charity, and the 2012 version, which it expects to raise €100,000 for the Debra charity, has attracted its fair share of complaints so far.
Among those offended is a UK-based flight attendant (not working for Ryanair) who has led a petition to ban an advertisement poster for the calendar on the grounds that it is sexist.
Far less controversial, it seems, are those calendars featuring men stripping off. Examples currently selling like hot cakes here include those featuring firefighters, farmers and GAA hurlers.
Irish firefighters have been seen on Dublin streets in the weeks leading up to Christmas selling the Irish Fire Calendar. In previous years, it used to feature only members of the Dublin fire brigade, but now includes firemen from Kildare, Wexford, Galway, Carlow, Louth and Meath.
The calendar, which this year is supporting the suicide charity 3ts, is also available from irishfirecalendars.com, Calendar Club stores and Dublin Airport duty-free shops.
Another calendar apparently enjoying bumper sales overseas as well as locally is the Irish Farmer Calender 2012, which pictures 12 topless farmer 'hunks' from around the country in their working environments in aid of charity Bóthar.
It was recently featured on German television, attracting more than four million viewers, and sparked a flurry in sales.
It is available from farmercalendar.com and from selected retail outlets including Easons, Reads of Nassau Street and Calendar Club.
With farmers and firefighters leading the way, it's perhaps not surprising that the world of GAA has now followed. Members of three-times All-Ireland club hurling champions, Portumna, opted to strip right down to Mother Nature in support of charity Cancer Care West.
Among them were All-Star pin-up brothers, Joe and Ollie Canning, who were joined by their other brother, Ivan, for the delicate photo-shoot at the family hurley manufacturing business near Portumna.
Wexford's double All-Ireland camogie champions have also produced a new calendar but, unlike the Portumna hurling lads, they have opted for a classier theme.
The back-to-back winners chose sophisticated glamour for their fashion photo shoot, with sky-high heels and evening dresses in satin and silk. The calendar can be purchased online at Tom Doyle Supplies, and all proceeds go towards the Wexford GAA players' welfare fund.
Another popular approach to charity calendars is the celebrity endorsement. The National Council for the Blind of Ireland and Fighting Blindness joined forces to produce a calendar based on its 'Over 50s Life Through a Lens' photography series.
The pictures were taken to raise awareness of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), an eye condition affecting 1-in-10 people over 50 in Ireland, and features a number of Irish celebrities, including chef Derry Clarke, RTE's Mary Kennedy, writer John Banville, tailor Louis Copeland, fashion designer Louise Kennedy and artist Graham Knuttel, portraying what they would miss most about everyday life if affected by AMD.
Another great example is the Irish Deaf Society's popular 'Signs of Life' 2012 diary, based on a photo exhibition that featured no less than 26 well-known Irish celebrities each signing a letter of the Irish Sign Language alphabet. These included Robbie Keane and Giovanni Trappatoni.
Although it's only available as a diary, rather than a calendar, Tracey Treanor of the IDS said: "The difference with our diary is that it's interactive, and you're not only remembering important dates and birthdays, but also learning a language."
Pictures of cute cats and dogs always go down well, so you could check out the 2012 calendars of either the Irish Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Animals (ISPCA) or the Dublin Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Animals (DSPCA).
For those with an interest in horses, the Irish horse charity Irish Horse Welfare Trust has teamed up with a group of Traveller men from Laois to create a 2012 calendar of archive photos.
Who can resist pictures of smiling babies and cute young children?
Smiles for Crumlin is a 2012 charity calendar produced by baby food company Cow & Gate and featuring hundreds of beaming babies and toddlers, all in aid of Our Lady's Children's Hospital in Crumlin to raise funds for a bone marrow transplant unit. It costs €10 and available online and in a number of Supervalu stores.
The 2012 calendar of the Jack and Jill Children's Foundation, entitled 'Little Kids, Big Dreams', features children dressed up in the paraphernalia of various life professions from builder to ballerina and teacher.
Sale proceeds of the calendar, now at the reduced price of €5, will go towards supporting home nursing care and respite for families of children with severe neurological development issues.
Irish Independent
