Take a chance on Irish cities for Monopoly fame

GLOBAL fame beckons, but Irish voters have just six days left to claim a space for either Cork or Waterford on the first worldwide Monopoly board game.

The two Irish cities are among 20 wildcard entries competing for the two remaining coveted spots in a line-up likely to include the world’s most sophisticated urbane quarters.

Twenty out of a total of 22 slots have already been filled by voters choosing from a pre-selected list of 68 cities. Two slots were left open for wildcard entries, and Cork and Waterford have made it into the final 20 in this category. However, with six days to go, the Taiwan city of Taipai is leading the wildcard charge, with 23.6% of the vote as of yesterday. In second place, with 17.3% was the Baltic seaport of Gdynia, Poland.

Cork and Waterford languish in 15th and 17th place, with 1.3% and 0.9% of the vote respectively. To swing it into the top two spots will take a huge online effort, but the Irish public has been known to defy the odds.

In 1999, Ronnie O’Brien, an unknown young Irish footballer who, after being let go by Middlesbrough, was signed by Juventus, was voted most promising newcomer of the year in an online poll. The result was down to the boredom of an Irish office worker who urged friends to vote.

Then in December 2002 the Wolfe Tones’ A Nation Once Again snuck in as winner of the BBC World Service’s “world’s most popular song”, beating classics such as John Lennon’s Imagine and Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody to take the title.

This time around, it will take all of our internet savvy to pull-off a last-minute coup.

The prize of a place in Monopoly history as the first cities to be selected in a world edition of the game makes it worth the effort. Voting closes on March 9.

* To vote, log on to www.monopoly.com.