€50 facewash a smash hit on YouTube
Former postman Denis Sweeney has become an instant YouTube hit after he was inadvertently captured on TV wiping the rain from his face with a €50 note.
Last Thursday was one of the wettest days remembered at Ballybrit, and a drenched Denis was standing in the background of an RTÉ interview with Barry Orr from betting exchange firm Betfair.
Denis, an avid racegoer, was eager to quiz racing journalist Brian Gleeson about his horse, Don’t Tell No One, which was in the last race in Galway. Without thinking, as the rain poured down over his face, Denis reached into his pocket and pulled out the driest thing to hand to wipe his forehead, which remarkably wasn’t a tissue but a €50 note.
His actions, which can be clearly seen during the 30-second TV clip, were quickly spotted by viewers and have gone viral, with up to 400,000 hits on YouTube after it was uploaded multiple times.
“I thought from a distance it would look like a hanky. Little did I know that it would end up on YouTube and the national papers,” says Denis.
“I know nothing about YouTube. In fact, I can’t even send a text message.
“When I’ve travelled around the world on racing trips, such as to Melbourne, Toronto, Rio, Cape Town, Prague, Paris or the UK, I always send messages to friends on a postcard and rely on the post office.”
The short clip has also received hundreds of comments from people all around the world, some more humorous and pleasant than others.
Denis only found out about being on YouTube from his nephew Lee Gormley, who saw it on the web in America and contacted his parents.
So what happened to the damp €50 note? Denis succeeded in talking to Brian Gleeson, who told him that despite the soft ground, Don’t Tell No One was a classy horse and Denis backed him at 3/1.
So a more than damp Denis turned that soggy €50 note into a €200 win — but there was nothing required to wipe the smile off his face after that.
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