This article is from page 27 of the 2007-10-09 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 27 JPG
A HURLING referee based in Quin has a unique way of unwinding af- ter games – drawing cartoons of im- ages which catch his attention, on the jCoAKen
Bernard Dowd is a keen GAA en- thusiast and is a very talented car- toon artist. He combines his love of sport with his expertise with the pen, to draw comical images of interest- ing personnel involved in GAA in the county.
Some of his GAA artwork 1s cur- rently on display at the Michael Cu- sack GAA centre in Carron. He ex- plains the background to his work.
‘Referees are under pressure. GAA is very serious. For some people, gaelic sports are no longer just a hob- by or a leisure activity. For many it 1s the competitive element that matters. It is all about unwinding,” said Mr Dowd, who hails from the hurling stronghold of Thurles.
‘There is always pressure on the ref- eree. He gets it from both sides. The referee 1s always wrong,” laughed Mr Dowd, who has been refereeing for the past seven years.
“At a lot of matches, you wouldn’t bring your Own umpires and you pick umpires from both sides. One waves it wide, while the other raises the flag, only too aware it was wide,” he said.
“You get a lot of that as you go along. People start fighting each oth- er. Every body goes berserk. There is no solution to the problem as you can’t bring umpires with you all dur- ing the year,” he added.
“Refereeing a game can be very exhilarating and exciting, but at the
same time if things go badly it can be psychologically draining. Often a referee can be exhausted by the de- mands placed on him from a difficult game. After the game referees like to unwind and relax,” he said.
Bernard has found his very own solution, one that helps him relax, after a stressful match and one that focuses on the humorous side of gaelic games.
“The trouble with doing the refe-
reeing is that you have to stick to the rules and any decision you make has to be the right decision. It leaves you with very little room to manoeuvre. But with drawing and sketching you can invent things that don’t exist or change situations or re-play events with different endings.
“Drawing solutions to problems is like a therapy. I have always been in- terested in art,” he said.
While he designs images for
Christmas cards for various busi- nesses in Clare, his first love is his GAA artwork.
‘“T have some pictures of managers or photographers standing on side- lines. I have a lot of images from GAA matches,” he said.