I was just whiling away a few hours over christmas and was struck by a few instances of countys changing the dominant colour of their strip basically over night,these counties seem to do this after a good championship win,for some reason the gaa has let them away with this,and these countys have never turned back to their traditional colours.the counties in question are Donegal: I noticed their change when watching a review of the football year in 1991 and 92.1991 they wear their traditional green with a gold band and white shorts basically the same as kerry,same during ulster campagin of 92 but they change in the all ireland semi final v mayo to ear gold jerseys with green sleeves and green shorts(why they werent made to wear the ulster colours of amber and black i dont know as they wore this v meath in 1990 semi final) donegal win this game and instead of returning to their usual strip for the final they keep this reverse strip for good and continue to do this day.why?and is theeir know love of the history of the old jersey?
Case 2: Sligo,always traditionaly white jerseys with black trim and white shorts,they beat kildare in a QUALIFIER! in 2001 wearing an all black strip fair enough cause kildare are white as well,but then keep this strip ever since!how the hell did sligo co board let that happen!? again why no love for the ancient jersey ?
Case 3: waterford this is to a lesser extent,out of know where waterford produce blue shorts in the last decade despit always wearing white with blue trim?

why have these counties done this after a good win in a championship game ,yet counties have won all irelands in changed strips and not suddenly adpted them as their first choice im thinking oof cork in all white with red trim in 2010,meath in gold and green shorts (a la donegal)in 1996,offaly had their most famous victory in 1982 wearing a mostly all white strip and did not change,galway won an allireland in mostly white in the 1960s. why these counties not abandon the colours?

dickie10 (UK) - Posts: 824 - 09/01/2013 21:34:23    1316083

Monaghan used to be black and amber till the 1940's I think. Do not know why we changed to white and blue, but we did.

theborderfox (Monaghan) - Posts: 138 - 09/01/2013 21:53:04    1316093

come to think of it dublin did not wear navy shorts until 1970s

dickie10 (UK) - Posts: 824 - 09/01/2013 21:55:11    1316094

Donegal never won a championship game in croker in the green and gold hoop top
Not saying its the reason - just an observation

ruanua (Donegal) - Posts: 4966 - 09/01/2013 21:58:32    1316096

'their' colours

Yea Monaghan changed - think Armagh also wore black and amber but there was a mix up with a set of jerseys that a group of nuns made for louth - they were orange and armagh took them and have been orange since. Think there was a thread like this couple years back.

Brolly (Monaghan) - Posts: 4472 - 10/01/2013 08:53:50    1316102

I heard a tale once (don't know if its true) that Mayo and Kerry met in the very early days of the GAA down in Tipperary and Kerry (also in green and red) switched their colours to green and gold to avoid a colour clash. They decided to keep the green and gold.

yew_tree (Mayo) - Posts: 11553 - 10/01/2013 08:59:57    1316104

Dubs used to be Blue and white till the laundry woman left in a navy top one day and the dye ran and the shorts came out navy and ever since, we wear blue and nacy

thats actually true!

Liamwalkinstown (Dublin) - Posts: 8166 - 10/01/2013 09:21:02    1316109

Some good points there.
Here's a few other small differences I've noticed through seeing old clips & photos over the years, maybe someone might know the answer to some of these.

Wexford - Why have they changed the arrangement of their famous purple & gold jersey? All of their All-Irelands were won with a predominantly purple jersey with a gold upper section, whereas now they have reversed that particular arrangement.

Fermanagh - I have seen a picture of them playing in an Ulster Final in the early 1980's, wearing their traditional mostly green jersey, albeit with a slightly odd red collar & cuffs trim and a red shorts combination.

Clare - Did they wear white shorts once upon a time? I think I've seen an old clip of them in action in a National League final in the 70's sporting white shorts.

Longford & Wicklow - When I was growing up and first started to watch football, both these county wore blue shorts. Now both wear white. I notice that Longford, however, won their only Leinster championship in 1968 wearing white shorts. When and why did they change? And then change back again?

Kerry - In the 1982 All-Ireland final, a clash of colours meant Offaly & Kerry would have to wear alternative jerseys. Why did Kerry still get to wear green (a lighter shade of green actually), minus their traditional gold band? Hardly much of a change.

Derry - More specifically, Derry hurlers, or what I remember of them in the 1990's. Why did they wear white shorts yet their football counterparts also wore red?

Down - By any chance, did Down footballers also used to wear white shorts?

OffalyBigBall (Offaly) - Posts: 635 - 10/01/2013 09:40:27    1316117

Too much time on yer hands there lads!!

Hopefully (Offaly) - Posts: 143 - 10/01/2013 09:52:10    1316120

As an English teacher I'm assuming you mean 'their' colours. If I was from Carlow I'd want a change of colours.

argael (Donegal) - Posts: 133 - 10/01/2013 09:59:34    1316123

10/01/2013 09:52:10
Hopefully
County: Offaly
Posts: 38

1316120 Too much time on yer hands there lads!!


I wont disagree with you on that one. But hey, its January......tis a very slow month!

OffalyBigBall (Offaly) - Posts: 635 - 10/01/2013 10:08:19    1316126

Tipperary were once White with a Green band.

Leitrim seemed to have reversed their colours in recent years.

On the Sligo one, I think that was a ploy by either Mickey Moran or Jim Morrison because they believed the black was a psychologically more imposing colour and made it easier for players to pick each other out. They tried to change Mayo's strip to predominantly red for the same reason.

roundball (Tipperary) - Posts: 2514 - 10/01/2013 10:14:28    1316129

yew_tree
County: Mayo
Posts: 4091

1316104
I heard a tale once (don't know if its true) that Mayo and Kerry met in the very early days of the GAA down in Tipperary and Kerry (also in green and red) switched their colours to green and gold to avoid a colour clash. They decided to keep the green and gold.


Not far off the mark yew_tree. The first Kerry teams (not club teams representing Kerry but proper inter-county teams) wore green and red because John Mitchels were the county champions and had the most players on the team - their club colours were green and red. In 1903, Kerry were playing in a tournament in Waterford but the jerseys were left behind for some reason. They then borrowed jerseys from a local club, Kilrossanty, who wore green and gold. They decided to stick with green and gold afterwards.

Cute_Kerry_Hoor (Kerry) - Posts: 2518 - 10/01/2013 10:15:25    1316132

the national colour of ireland used to be blue NOT green. what happened there ?

s goldrick (Cavan) - Posts: 5520 - 10/01/2013 10:25:37    1316138

That is not actually true Liam!

Dublin first wore navy shorts in 1974 when they began to appear on TV again. First time I think was in Division Two league final against Kildare. Hurlers wore the white shorts, old sky blue jersies with white crest and three castles and blue and white hooped scoks until 1976 or 1977.

I have hear the story about the jersies in the wash and it is true that Dublin wore royal blue until sometime in the 1940s. But they were in sky blue jersies and white shorts by the early 50s.

There is famous photograph of Dublin and Tipperary on Bloody Sunday with Tipp wearing the white jersey and green hoop which ironically was the jersey worn by O'Tooles who made up most of the Dublin team that day. I wonder perhaps did they borrow them?

hurlingdub (Dublin) - Posts: 6978 - 10/01/2013 10:38:52    1316144

s goldrick
County: Cavan
Posts: 1791

1316138
the national colour of ireland used to be blue NOT green. what happened there ?

St. Patrick's blue as it's called.

I think the green began to replace the blue in the latter half of the 19th Century during the rise of Irish Nationalism. Not sure the exact reasons though.

Also I think all counties used to have to wear white shorts from what I know. It was the Down team of the 1960s that broke the mould in that regard.

MesAmis (Dublin) - Posts: 13796 - 10/01/2013 10:43:47    1316148

Offaly actually won the right to play in the colours of the tricolour by winning a special tournament a century ago.

keeper7 (Longford) - Posts: 4088 - 10/01/2013 11:03:32    1316157

Cute_Kerry_Hoor - cheers for the info. I know from pictures of the 1951 Mayo winning team that they wore white - representing Connacht. I dont know if this was a once off or if other counties wore their provincial colours in the past once they got out of Connacht, Munster etc.

yew_tree (Mayo) - Posts: 11553 - 10/01/2013 11:13:18    1316161

Hurlingdub, the white and green jerseys worn by the Tipperary footballers on Bloody Sunday and in the 1920 All Ireland Final win over Dublin were the Grangemockler colours and had nothing to do with O'Toole's.

Star Gazer (Tipperary) - Posts: 436 - 10/01/2013 11:16:54    1316164

Down wore a red jersey up to 1922 but from 1923 they wore a blue jerseys with a white trim for about ten years. In the early 1930s they switched back to a red jersey but with black collars and cuffs. I'd love to know the reasons behind the colour changes, so if anyone can shed light on the matter I'd be grateful. Perhaps the blue & white has something to do with St. Colman's College but I'm just speculating.

As far as I know MesAmis is quite right in stating that Down were the first to wear shorts that weren't white in 1962.

peter_venkman (Down) - Posts: 320 - 10/01/2013 11:17:07    1316165