Second Time’s A Charm: Irish Football Club Unveils Bob Marley Jersey, Again
Irish soccer club, Bohemian Football Club, has unveiled a new jersey featuring the image of reggae icon Bob Marley. The new away kit comes after the club revealed a similar garment in 2019 but had to shelve plans for a full-scale launch after learning that they did not have the correct licensing rights.
Following a collaboration between the Marley family, Bravado, and Universal Music Group’s global merchandise division, the new jersey was released on Monday (January 24).
According to a release from the club, the jersey commemorates Marley’s last ever outdoor concert which took place at the club’s stadium in Dalymount Park on July 6, 1980.
In an Instagram post today, Bob’s daughter Cedella said that part of the proceeds from jerseys aid asylum seekers in Ireland, specifically the Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland (MASI), an advocacy group with the goal of ending deportation.
Dubbed “An Afternoon in the Park” the jersey bares an image of Marley in addition to an embroidered hem tag of the original concert ticket on the lower front of the garment.
The jersey’s front, rear neck and sleeve trims have red, yellow and green colours, indicative of the Rastafari movement, of which Marley was a supporter.
Produced by Irish sports manufacturer, O’Neills, the jerseys are expected to be a best seller; with a shirt having already been sent to Jamaican sprinter and soccer enthusiast, Usain Bolt.
“I think we’ll smash any Irish record for sure. I know it will be our best-selling shirt,” Bohemians’ chief operating officer, Daniel Lambert, told Forbes. “It’s a really nice piece of history and I think it’s going to be pretty big,” Lambert added.
Marley’s last outdoor concert before his death at the age of 36 was at Dublin’s Dalymount Park on Sunday, July 6, 1980. 23,000 patrons attended the sunny afternoon concert in which Marley referenced ‘the Irish struggle’ before performing Redemption Song at the venue.
In August 2021, Dutch football club Ajax released their own Bob Marley-inspired third kit for the 2021-22 season, which is a tribute to their fans’ anthem Three Little Birds.
The Ajax shirt sold out in one day.