GAA Club and county colours

[muppet]

(2) In most counties, horizontal hoops are extremely rare, and when they exist, almost always green and white. Except in Cork - where a rake of clubs (Na Piarsaigh, Glen Rovers, Newmarket, Blackrock, Ballincollig, Carbeyr Rangers, Newcestown and more) all wear them in different colours. Why so rare everywhere, why so common in Cork? Note i'm not including amalgamated clubs here, which often have to incorporate bits of different "ingredient" clubs.

Horizontal hoops are relatively common in Galway hurling as well. Off the top of my head, Turloughmore (black and white hoops), Mullagh (green and white hoops), Rahoon/Newcastle (maroon and white hoops), Killimordaly (green and white hoops) and Kilnadeema-Leitrim (maroon, white and blue hoops) all wear horizonal hoops. I actually can't think of any football clubs in the county that play in hoops though funnily enough. Off the top of my head anyway.

St. Mary's?

Think they still play in plain maroon with white shorts.

I meant the school. Black & red horizontal hoops in my day and still sometimes looking at their website.

Did Jarlath's have a sash in the 1980s or am I dreaming it?

[Lone Shark]

Parke are the only ones I know of with horizontal stripes (black & amber)

I knew there was another thing I meant to include! Thanks for the reminder....

Black and amber vertical stripes seem to be very common - Kilkenny and Crossmaglen are abviously the most famous teams wearing them, but many counties have a black and amber striped team somewhere. (Seir Kieran, Strokestown, The Downs....) and yet stripes of other colours are quite rare. Initially I thought this might be because striped jerseys are more usually associated with soccer, but why then is black and amber an exception to that trend?

Deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole we go....

[GalwayBayBoy]

(2) In most counties, horizontal hoops are extremely rare, and when they exist, almost always green and white. Except in Cork - where a rake of clubs (Na Piarsaigh, Glen Rovers, Newmarket, Blackrock, Ballincollig, Carbeyr Rangers, Newcestown and more) all wear them in different colours. Why so rare everywhere, why so common in Cork? Note i'm not including amalgamated clubs here, which often have to incorporate bits of different "ingredient" clubs.

Horizontal hoops are relatively common in Galway hurling as well. Off the top of my head, Turloughmore (black and white hoops), Mullagh (green and white hoops), Rahoon/Newcastle (maroon and white hoops), Killimordaly (green and white hoops) and Kilnadeema-Leitrim (maroon, white and blue hoops) all wear horizonal hoops. I actually can't think of any football clubs in the county that play in hoops though funnily enough. Off the top of my head anyway.

St. Mary's?

Think they still play in plain maroon with white shorts.

I meant the school. Black & red vertical hoops in my day and still sometimes looking at their website.

Did Jarlath's have a sash in the 1980s or am I dreaming it?

Oh the school yeah Mary's were red and black hoops in my day anyway. Not sure if they still are.

[GalwayBayBoy]

Parke are the only ones I know of with horizontal stripes (black & amber)

I knew there was another thing I meant to include! Thanks for the reminder....

Black and amber horizontal stripes seem to be very common - Kilkenny and Crossmaglen are abviously the most famous teams wearing them, but many counties have a black and amber striped team somewhere. (Seir Kieran, Strokestown, The Downs....) and yet stripes of other colours are quite rare. Initially I thought this might be because striped jerseys are more usually associated with soccer, but why then is black and amber an exception to that trend?

Deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole we go....

Mountbellew/Moylough are the token black and amber striped club in Galway. And can't think of anyone else who plays in any kind of stripes apart from them.

[Donnellys Hollow]

Interesting topic Lone Shark.

However if we take the primary colours of yellow, blue and red, you'd imagine that they would all be used with similar levels of frequency, as is the case in most other sports teams around the world - yet it's anything but. A blue/yellow combo is extremely common, even at county level. It's used by Clare, Tipperary, Longford and Roscommon - yet red/yellow and red/blue are extremely rare, and non existent at county.

St Laurence's are the only club in Kildare I can think of with the red and yellow combination.

In most counties, horizontal hoops are extremely rare, and when they exist, almost always green and white. Except in Cork - where a rake of clubs (Na Piarsaigh, Glen Rovers, Newmarket, Blackrock, Ballincollig, Carbeyr Rangers, Newcestown and more) all wear them in different colours. Why so rare everywhere, why so common in Cork? Note i'm not including amalgamated clubs here, which often have to incorporate bits of different "ingredient" clubs

I can think of three clubs in Kildare with horizontal stripes. Kilcullen (black and white), Cappagh (red and white) and Ardclough (gold, red and black).

If you say "the sash" you think of Sarsfields in Kildare. Yet that design - one colour with a diagonal stripe - is almost unheard of among other football clubs, and quite common in hurling sides (Boherlahan, Kilruane, Tullaroan, Drumcullen, Mooncoin, St Martins, Loughrea). Is there some reason why this would be a hurling thing, or a hurling "area" thing?

Again this design seems to be quite common in Kildare. Two Mile House (gold with a green sash), Straffan (white with a blue sash),Kill (green with a gold sash) and Milltown (green with a red sash).

Green/yellow - everywhere. Green/Red - everywhere. Green/Blue - very rare. Why so? I'm guessing this one may just be aesthetics.

Johnstownbridge sport blue and green. Not a particularly good looking combination.

The county colours were derived from the all white of the Clane club when they were county champions in 1903. Clane adopted the colours in the late nineteenth century when they borrowed a spare set of white rugby jerseys from Clongowes Wood College.

Excellent. This is exactly the type of stuff I was hoping for in the thread. Maith thú.

Definitely the early evidence would suggest that the Sash thing is actually quite evenly spread across codes - though three instances in Kildare and four or so in Kilkenny might point to a localised trend of using them. I see that Killeshin in Laois also wear a white sash on green, while Palatine in Carlow are green on red. Maybe a south Leinster/Tipperary thing? Far less common in Connacht from what I can tell, I don't think I've seen a sash jersey in Roscommon or Galway.

I omitted Naas who also sport a hooped jersey (blue and white). Round Towers another to add to the list of black and amber stripes.

[blewuporstuffed]

In Tyrone  Killeshill  have green & white hoops, moortown red & white hoops and edendork have green and gold hoops.
Yellow and blue isnt as common as it seems to be in other counties either, i can only think of a few Donaghmore (blue with a yellow band) killyman, (yellow with blue togs) gortin (blue & yellow jersey, white togs) errigal ciaran (white jersey with bue & yellow stripe, blue togs).
There are a few clubs that are black and amber (augher,pomeroy & loughmacrory)
Ardboe are probably the most unusual with a orange and blue jersey.

[johnneycool]

However if we take the primary colours of yellow, blue and red, you'd imagine that they would all be used with similar levels of frequency, as is the case in most other sports teams around the world - yet it's anything but. A blue/yellow combo is extremely common, even at county level. It's used by Clare, Tipperary, Longford and Roscommon - yet red/yellow and red/blue are extremely rare, and non existent at county. Even at club level in Offaly, we have 43 clubs and off the top of my head I can think of five that use blue/yellow (Shannonbridge, Rynaghs, Bracknagh, Ballycumber, Carrig & Riverstown), one that uses blue/red (Drumcullen) and none that use red/yellow. That trend appears to be replicated all across Ireland from what I can tell. I would have thought that maybe this was because red was associated with England and so was seen as a negative, yet the most common single colour jersey after green is definitely red.

Bríd Óg. the youth wing of Joe Brollys very own St Bríds have a red and blue horizontal hooped jersey, don't know if that trend carries into their adult ranks, never seen them play. Not very fetching TBH!

Black and Amber ala Kilkenny would be sported by Ballycran and Ballycastle, with Ballycran taking their colours from a club founder, the local school teacher who eminated originally from Kilkenny.

[Stall the Bailer]

In Tyrone  Killeshill  have green & white hoops, moortown red & white hoops and edendork have green and gold hoops.
Yellow and blue isnt as common as it seems to be in other counties either, i can only think of a few Donaghmore (blue with a yellow band) killyman, (yellow with blue togs) gortin (blue & yellow jersey, white togs) errigal ciaran (white jersey with bue & yellow stripe, blue togs).
There are a few clubs that are black and amber (augher,pomeroy & loughmacrory)
Ardboe are probably the most unusual with a orange and blue jersey.

Glenelly also play in Navy & Sky Blue hoops, almost sure Greencastle has played in green and white hoops as well.

[Croí na hÉireann]

(2) In most counties, horizontal hoops are extremely rare, and when they exist, almost always green and white. Except in Cork - where a rake of clubs (Na Piarsaigh, Glen Rovers, Newmarket, Blackrock, Ballincollig, Carbeyr Rangers, Newcestown and more) all wear them in different colours. Why so rare everywhere, why so common in Cork? Note i'm not including amalgamated clubs here, which often have to incorporate bits of different "ingredient" clubs.

Horizontal hoops are relatively common in Galway hurling as well. Off the top of my head, Turloughmore (black and white hoops), Mullagh (green and white hoops), Rahoon/Newcastle (maroon and white hoops), Killimordaly (green and white hoops) and Kilnadeema-Leitrim (maroon, white and blue hoops) all wear horizonal hoops. I actually can't think of any football clubs in the county that play in hoops though funnily enough. Off the top of my head anyway.

As for sashes I think Loughrea and Kilconieron are two hurling clubs that have sashes in the county. Moycullen also have a sash but are a dual club.

Cappataggle are another who play in red and black hoops.

Castletown Geoghegan in Westmeath are another hurling club who play in black and amber stripes.

[Owenmoresider]

Allowing for the changes/bastardisation of traditional designs by the newer O'Neills/Azzurri kits, the Sligo line up is:
Green/white trim - Curry, Bunninadden, St Molaise Gaels, St Michaels, Western Gaels (hurling)
White/green trim - Eastern Harps
Green/gold hoop - Tourlestrane
Red/white trim - Coolera, Castleconnor
White/red hoop - Ballymote
Black/white trim - Tubbercurry (or white/black, they usually were this but seem to change constantly)
Maroon/white trim - Shamrock Gaels
Blue/white trim - Geevagh
White/blue trim - Mullinabreena, St. Farnans (who usually had a hoop, Mullinabreena often had multiple hoops too, and stripes occasionally)
Blue/gold trim - Easkey, Calry/St. Josephs (who switched from gold/blue which they had for years)
Blue/gold hoop - Owenmore Gaels (we reversed this for a while, some of our underage kits still do)
Yellow/blue trim - Cloonacool
Green/red trim - St Patricks (was usually a hoop)
Black/red hoop - Drumcliffe (they also inverted this for a time)
Red/black trim - St Marys
Black/gold trim - Enniscrone (also was inverted, and its so long since I've seen them that it could still be)
Sky blue/navy blue trim - St Johns

Nothing pretty extraordinary there, Drumcliffe's probably the rarest instance of the lot.

[deiseach]

Black and Amber ala Kilkenny would be sported by Ballycran and Ballycastle, with Ballycran taking their colours from a club founder, the local school teacher who eminated originally from Kilkenny.

I wonder whether it would be common for new(ish)clubs to adopt county colours. While Tramore has a place in the early days of the association - the very first competitive event staged by the GAA took place on Tramore race course - the current club was only established in 1951 and lo! the Waterford county colours must have look particularly alluring only three years after our first All-Ireland victory.

[Club Rossa]

My club Ardboe O'Donovan Rossa wears orange and blue shirts,an extremely unusual combination for a GAA club.I think the only other club in Ireland with these colours are Tipperary club Skeheenarinky.
We used to wear saffron jerseys but the story goes that we then had a priest arrive from Armagh.He was very influential within the club and suggested a change of colours.He went with the Armagh orange but paired it with blue for some reason.So that's how we ended up with the orange and blue.

[Unlaoised]

Another point on this Topic why did counties change their Primary colours aswell

Sligo were white with Black trim-now all black
Donegal were green with a yellow hoop-Now yellow with green trim
Wexford seem to change the Purple and gold sequence every year

Also why do most county teams wear white shorts when they don't match....

The Cats be nicer with black shorts
Kerry with Green etc

Laois wore Blue shorts instead of white in the early 80s

Kildare,Kilkenny and Down are two counties I can think of that haven't messed around with the county colours for years ..Offaly were the same but a bit different now!

[Club Rossa]

I thought Donegal wore all yellow jerseys then switched to the green with gold band.So they're back to their original one now.I may be wrong on that.

[Hardy]

Shamrocks, Cork: