Gaelic games county colours

Fans of Cork (red and white) and Meath (green and yellow) on Hill 16 in Croke Park watching the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship 2007 semifinal.

The county colours of an Irish county are the colours of the kit worn by that county's representative team in the inter-county competitions of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA). The most important of these are the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship and the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship. Fans attending matches often wear replica jerseys, and wave flags and banners in the county colours. In the build-up to a major match, flags and bunting are flown or hung from cars, buildings, telegraph poles, and other fixtures across the county, especially in those regions where GAA support is strong.

Where a county's jersey is multi-coloured, these are the county colours. Where the jersey is a single colour, the colour of the shorts is also included. Shorts were formerly always white, but some counties adopted coloured shorts from the 1960s, such as Dublin's now familiar navy blue.

Flags

Flags with counties' colours and coats of arms flying in the Upper Yard at Dublin Castle

While each county council has a coat of arms, there are no official county flags. Flags with the GAA county colours serve as de facto county flags. However, there are no standardised formats for these, except Kildare whose flag, like their kit, is all-white. Typically, flags are formed as vertical bicolours or tricolours. Usually, the major colour is nearer the hoist. Moreover, horizontal stripes are used by some individuals. (This is common in County Offaly, where vertical county colours might be mistaken for the flag of Ireland; however other Offaly fans deliberately exploit this double significance.)

Flags with checkerboard, repeating stripes, and other patterns are also found. In recent years, flags have been commercially produced which feature the county's GAA logo on the flag. These logos are sometimes based on the official county coat-of-arms, but some have been replaced with unrelated designs. Fans may also wave other flags of the appropriate colours. For example, among the red-and-white flags used by individual Cork GAA supporters have been the flag of Canada and the ensign of the Imperial Japanese Navy. As Cork is nicknamed the "Rebel County", its fans have also flown the Rebel Flag of the American Civil War. With the Blue and Gold flags used by individual Tipperary GAA supporters, there has been the Flag of Sweden and the Flag of Ukraine. Mayo fans have used the flags of Italy, Portugal and Bangladesh. Kerry supporters have been seen to wave Brazilian flags due to the similar colours and fact that Brazil have always dominated soccer while Kerry are considered the "Brazil of Gaelic Football" due to their enormous success at the sport.

Connacht

FlagCountyDescription
Galway Maroon and White
Leitrim Green and Gold
Mayo Green and Red
Roscommon Primrose and Blue
Sligo Black and White

Leinster

FlagCountyDescription
Carlow Green, Red and Yellow
Dublin Sky Blue and Navy Blue
Fingal Purple and White
Kildare All White
Kilkenny Black and Amber
Laois Blue and White
Longford Blue and Gold
Louth Red and White
Meath Green and Gold
Offaly Green, White and Gold
Westmeath Maroon and White
Wexford Purple and Gold
Wicklow Blue and Gold

Munster

FlagCountyDescription
Munster Council Blue and Navy
Clare Saffron and Blue
Cork Red and White
Kerry Green and Gold
Limerick Green and White
Tipperary Blue and Gold
Waterford White and Blue

Ulster

FlagCountyDescription
Antrim Saffron and White
Armagh Orange and White
Cavan Blue and White
Derry Red and White
Donegal Green and Gold
Down Red and Black
Fermanagh Green and White
Monaghan White and Blue
Tyrone Red and White

Britain

The British Provincial Board is responsible for seven areas of Britain that are treated as "counties" by the GAA. Their representative teams naturally have standard kit colours like the Irish counties.

FlagCountyDescription
Gloucestershire Gold and Green
Hertfordshire Green and Yellow
Lancashire Blue and Yellow
London Green and White
Scotland
Warwickshire White and Black
Yorkshire

Other

The New York County Board is responsible for Gaelic games in the New York metropolitan area, recognised as a "county" by the GAA.

FlagCountyDescription
New York Red, White and Blue

See also

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, March 05, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.