Former Shamrock Rovers mascot arrested in Bulgaria

The family of a Shamrock Rovers' fan who say he has been wrongly arrested in Bulgaria on suspicion of travelling on a fake passport have appealed for help in returning him to Ireland.

28-year-old Daniel Fulham from Tallaght was in the country to watch Shamrock Rovers play in a Champions League game on Tuesday, but was detained by immigration officials as he attempted to cross the border into neighbouring Romania, where he and a group of other supporters were travelling to take a return flight to Ireland.

Fellow supporters say that when Bulgarian officials boarded the bus to check documents, they removed the Tallaght man, saying they were not satisfied that the photograph on his Irish passport was his.

They say Mr Fulham, who was the Shamrock Rovers mascot 'Hooperman' for a number of years, produced several other corroborating documents including a passport card and showed them his social media pages and other photographs in order to verify his identity, but Bulgarian officials took him into custody and later arrested him.

Mr Fulham’s mother Noleen said the Department of Foreign Affairs and gardaí have issued an email to the Bulgarian authorities to confirm that his passport is legitimate, but they have not yet released him from custody

Ms Fulham said that she believes the issue has arisen because at the time his passport photo was taken in 2019, when her son was unwell and taking medication which caused some bloating in his face.

She said he has travelled on the same passport to Australia, the UK and Malta in recent times without any issues, nor was there any problem on his entry to Bulgaria when his documents were checked.

"Daniel travels all the time and there has never been a problem. He's a quiet, gentle person who has