One of the men appearing in this week’s “Club or County” viral video claims he has been subjected to constant abuse after the advert’s release.

The video, which promotes AIB’s sponsorship of the GAA club championship, features several attendees at last week’s All-Ireland football final being asked what’s more important: club or county?

They are then offered a cash sum for their club to tear up their All-Ireland ticket on camera. The advert shows several refusing, before one couple decide to take the leap.

The video has been viewed over 220,000 times on YouTube and Facebook. It appears to show the offer of €2,000 for a local club being refused by several people.

But Cathal Corey - who previously managed Naomh Chonaill in Glenties with Donegal senior manager Jim McGuinness - was one of those shown to refuse the offer. He said he was offered just €500, not €2,000, and that the video left out his offer to make the donation himself.

He said he has been receiving abusive messages ever since.

But Cathal, who is heavily involved in a Tyrone club, and not with Donegal, said: “I said to him: look, I don’t have much money, but I’ll give my club €500 out of my own money, but I want to go see the match here today."

Cathal said he knows several players and staff on the Donegal team, including Jim McGuinness, Leo McLoone, and Anthony and Leon Thompson.

“They were friends of mine, and I wanted to go to that match. [Donegal player] Leon Thompson offered me the tickets - they were their tickets they got for their family and good friends, and I didn’t want to miss the game.”

But instead, he says the video seems to show him rejecting €2,000 for his Tyrone club so he can see Donegal play.

Cathal said he thought nothing more of it until the following Tuesday, when he received a text message from a friend telling him he was right not to rip up his ticket. He had not seen the video that that point.

“The second that I watched it and seen them giving your man a cheque for €2,000 I knew … the way people were going to be.”

“It made it look like they had offered me and the other four or five people €2,000 - but that wasn’t the case. I knew I was going to get s***.”

The day the video was released, Cathal started receiving text messages with abusive language - some of which came from numbers he didn’t even know. Even his son, who helped him film a response video with raw footage of the exchange last Sunday, began getting abuse at work, he said.

“I went away to a wedding down in the parish here - I went down with a wedding present - and I knew by going to the house that I was going to get serious stick,”

“I pulled up to the house ... and there was some guy at the door saying: ‘you’re some c***. That’s the type of abuse I’m getting.”

Cathal said many were unwilling to believe that he had only been offered €500, and that he had said he’d make the donation himself. But then he remembered that his wife had recorded the interview from nearby.

With the help of his son, he recorded a response video which he posted to Facebook on Thursday evening. It clocked up 85,000 views and 2,500 likes in the next 16 hours.

If the embed fails, you can find the Facebook post here.

In the video, the amount of €500 can be clearly heard (0:56).

“I just feel that it said to me, watching it, that I let the club down. Even friends of mine that are close … were saying: it looked like you chose Donegal over us.”

Cathal said that while he understands the need to create an engaging video, he felt that his offer of making the donation himself “wasn’t a big enough story for them” and portrayed him “as a totally different person”.

“It’s all good for them to make videos … but they have to be responsible on what they put out there, and how they would say that.”

Cathal is now calling on AIB to make a donation to the other clubs featured in the viral advertising spot.

“I’m sure [the others] are getting the same stick as what I’m getting.”

“The campaign is to try and get AIB … to give [the other participants’] clubs a few pound too.”

And, despite airing his frustration, he said the staff on the day didn’t have any bad intentions. “They were brilliant at their job - absolutely brilliant.

“They had it well-rehearsed - they took my ticket off me and said ‘Cathal, we need your serial number’ .. and then they hand you back a fake ticket.

“But the ticket I had was upper Cusack stand, and the ticket they handed me back was also Upper Cusack Stand … they were brilliantly well done, well rehearsed, and slick.”

AIB's press office were contacted for comment earlier today, but had yet to issue a response at the time of writing. (Update 5.45pm: AIB issued a statement making a similar comment to the Facebook comment pasted below, and apologised for the delayed response.)

Update 5.05pm:

In a comment on Facebook, AIB GAA posted a comment saying "everyone we approached on the day was offered a different amount of money depending on how close it was getting to the big match."

"Because Cathal was one of the first we approached, the amount offered was lower. We know what club means to Cathal and it means a lot to us too, which is why everyone who participated got a donation for their club."

— By Dave Molloy