‘Offensive’ Irish cards are removed

By Billy Foley

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A LEADING US greetings card maker yesterday announced that it had removed “offensive” St Patrick’s day greeting cards from this year’s selection.

The move follows complaints from an Irish-American group that some of the cards “debased” Irish people.

A spokeswoman for Hallmark yesterday said the offending cards would not form part of the company line for this season.

However, she added that some shops which had kept stocks from last year may use the cards.

The St Patrick’s Day Parade Committee, based in Newark, New Jersey, said Hallmark’s St Patrick’s day cards last year were “offensive to all those of Irish descent”.

The committee wrote to the company asking it to remove the cards from their 2001 St Patrick’s day line.

One of the cards they objected to gives a circular line map from the bar to a table, to the toilet and back again. It says: “For your St Patrick’s day enjoyment, your personal copy of a map of the traditional parade route.”

Another card shows an elderly woman pouring a bottle of stout into a glass, accompanied by the caption: “After her cabbages lost their appeal, Colleen had to find a different way to get men through her front door.”