The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Mary points way to Amarillo
TRALEE Garda Mary Gardiner has been the talk of not just Kerry, but the internet, this past week as footage of her brilliant ‘performance’ of the Tony Christie classic ‘Amarillo’ has spread far and wide.
The video, which impressively only took two takes to get right, has so far received close to one million views at the time of going to print.
For those who haven’t seen it yet, the clip features Mary, a much-loved community Garda, being joined by residents from Tonevane in re-enacting the ‘Amarillo’ music video made famous by Peter Kay.
And while it’s safe to say that Mary played a blinder in her role, there was one person not present who was at the heart of the routine – one-year-old Dan Donoher from Ballybrittas,
County Laois who was born with a genetic neuromuscular disease called Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) Type One and Scoliosis. A ground-breaking treatment called Zolgensma is currently only available in USA and costs $2.1million for a once-off infusion.
The fundraising campaign ‘Do It For Dan’ has been trending all over Ireland for the past few weeks, and the ‘Amarillo’ clip by Mary and co was their own way of contributing to the fundraising campaign.
Speaking to The Kerryman,
Mary said that whole thing was all just a bit of fun and the most important thing is that it was all done with baby Dan in mind.
“People are delighted with the video and it all seems to be very positive, what people are commenting. We obviously did the Mamma Mia thing last week, and then we said we’d try and do something for the Today FM ‘Formal Friday’, which was last Friday, and this was to raise funds for those on the frontline,” said Mary.
“We really wanted to do something for baby Dan as well, and we decided that we’d put the two together, and there you go!
“I love the Peter Kay Amarillo comic relief video he did a few years ago, so that’s what we decided on. It was so funny making it, and I must give a shout out to one John Paul Jones for his epic timing throwing a bucket of water on me,” she laughed.
“It was great fun, and I’d do it all again, and what’s most important is that a small child is after getting his money. You’d throw anything on yourself if you thought it was going to help him or someone else,” said Mary.