Irish Examiner view: Sudocrem a hit with Madonna

Madonna, with Sudocrem visible on a shelf behind her left shoulder.

It has the feel of an April fool’s joke but there was nothing fabricated about the playful headlines rejoicing that global celebrity Madonna had a tub of Irish-produced Sudocrem on her bathroom shelf. 

It was also revealing that eagle-eyed Irish viewers looked right past the scantily clad superstar to spot the household must-have that has helped us negotiate everything from nappy rash to bedsores since it was developed here in the 1930s.

Perhaps it is that hunger for a national feelgood story that has made the response to our lacklustre performance on the soccer pitch so shrill. A draw against Qatar after a winless run in 11 games brought a predictable outcry.

The uproar was not so much a desire to kick the team when they were down, as manager Stephen Kenny has said, but an illustration of our aching need for a Jack’s Army-style collective lift. In its absence, we’ll mark even the silliest of Covid silly-season national ‘victories’, such as the appearance of a tub of Sudocrem on a celebrity shelf.