ASDA in Coleraine has been forced to remove a St Patrickâs Day card - emblazoned with the tricolour - because of complaints from local loyalists. Some had claimed that the supermarket was being hypocritical following an earlier decision to remove a Royal Wedding DVD carrying a small Union Jack on its cover. There was even talk on some social networking sites of loyalist shoppers boycotting the Ring Road store. Now ASDA has responded to the furore by apologising for any offence and confirmed that the greeting card had been removed from sale. An ASDA spokesperson told The Coleraine Times: âWe do our very best to listen and respond to the needs of all our customers from across the community and this includes how they celebrate major holidays, events and special occasions. âOur range of St Patrickâs Day cards has been very popular and some have sold out completely. âDue to complaints about one particular card we made the decision to remove it from sale, but other St Patrickâs Day options are on shelf for customers who chose to celebrate this event,â she concluded The row first erupted when a Glasgow Rangers fan posted his complaint on the football fan site, Rangers Media Forum, calling on others to ring the supermarketâs complaints department. He said ASDA was âselling St.Patâs day cards with tricolours on them but wouldnât sell the Royal Wedding DVD in case it offended anyone and also removed bread from the shelves that had a small Union Flag on it.â Before long the thread had been picked up by Twitter, Facebook and even by TalkCeltic.net - Rangersâ opposite number in the world of online forums. One local man who contacted ASDA claimed to have received a written apology from the store: âThanks for taking the time to contact ASDA about the St Patrickâs Day card you saw on sale in your local store,â said the reply. âWe always take pride in the products we sell and use the most reputable suppliers to provide us with quality products at low prices. âIâm sorry if the St Patrickâs Day card with the Republic of Ireland stripes caused any offence. This certainly wasnât our intention, the last thing we want to do is upset any of our customers with our products.â The letter added that a representative from the Seasonal Buying Team had confirmed that the issue had been raised with suppliers and has now been removed from sale to prevent any further offence. It concludes: âOnce again, Iâm sorry one of our products has caused you to be offended. âI hope the actions Iâve taken will go some way towards restoring your faith in us at ASDA, and weâd be more than happy to welcome you into our stores again very soon.â http://www.colerainetimes.co.uk/news/local/asda-remove-st-patrick-s-day-product-1-3591564
Ciaran you can't take union flags on DVDs off shelves without thinking something similar would happen.
Small Union Flags/Tricolurs causing offence! It's not like they had signs up saying "**** you paddy ya fenian/orange ****" Nuke Norn Iron ...problems solved!
Check this out for 'sadness'. http://timbersarmy.org/aboutus/history <- This link is about the fans of Kris Boyds new team called Portland Timbers. The Ultras group used to be called the Cascade Rangers... Between the 2001 and 2002 seasons, members of the Cascade Rangers and other Timbers supporters who stood in section 107 joined forces, creating the Timbers Army. This Army had no officers; the fans themselves collectively decided how to support their club. Initially, the group known as the Cascade Rangers was founded by brothers Steven âNevetsâ and Jim âLendogâ Lenhart in the lead-up to the 2001 return of the Timbers to Portland. The collective, without any sort of official membership scheme, would gather pre-match at the Bitter End Pub to bond through singing, chanting and drinking. The name Cascade Rangers was later abandoned due to the connotation of partiality for the club Glasgow Rangers. Conversely, the name was actually chosen in reference to the Cascade Range, but nonetheless proved offensive to many Glasgow Celtic supporters following the Timbers.
