A West Cork woman's support for a campaign for a ‘ginger' emoji to represent redheads on mobile phones looks set to get the green light.
A WEST Cork woman’s support for a campaign for a ‘ginger’ emoji to represent redheads on mobile phones looks set to get the green light.
While redheads were disappointed that there was no Redhead Convention in Crosshaven this summer, they do now have something to smile about. It appears that Convention organiser Joleen Cronin’s backing for a bid to have ginger emojis on phones and computers will finally bear fruit next year.
It was announced recently that the ‘Irish’ emoji has been included in a list by Unicode – the official company who make the emojis – which means it could be in place by 2018.
Crosshaven publican Joleen, who runs Cronin’s Bar in the village, and is one of the organisers of the Redhead Convention, said this is great news for redheads everywhere.
‘I’m delighted with this announcement and it’s finally great to be on equal platform as everyone else,’ Joleen told The Southern Star.
‘The call to include a ginger emoji really gathered momentum over the past two years and petitions were started up around the world to include ginger in their emojis.’
Despite the cancellation of this year’s Redhead Convention, which celebrated all things ginger, Joleen said some people still came to the seaside town for what was a low-key reunion for regular festival-goers.
One former ginger, Fergal Barr from Derry, even took to walking to Crosshaven to raise money for the Irish Cancer Society, a charity that the Redhead Convention has been supporting since it started in 2010.
‘Fergal has been coming to Crosshaven for the Redhead Convention for several years and he finally got it together to do the walk this summer, even though no festival was taking place and it was a great achievement,’ said Joleen.
Accompanying him on the ‘Redhead 300’ trek from Derry to Crosshaven were Galway cancer survivor Shirley McEntee and Aine Curran, who all donned red wigs and completed the walk in 14 days, raising over €4,000 for the Irish Cancer Society. They landed in Crosshaven last Friday and were warmly welcomed by Joleen and the people of the town.
Joleen also pointed out that the Redhead Portrait Exhibition by photographer Jorg Koster, which was staged successfully in both Cork and Dublin airports last year, is now on permanent display at Cork Airport.
‘It got a great reaction last year, so it’s great news to see it get a home in Cork Airport for a few years,’ added Joleen.
