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You wouldn't have recognised the Westmeath jersey back in the early 1900s

As you may have noticed a storm in a teacup seemed to have been brewing in Westmeath involving th...



You wouldn't have recognis...
Football

You wouldn't have recognised the Westmeath jersey back in the early 1900s

As you may have noticed a storm in a teacup seemed to have been brewing in Westmeath involving the minor hurling side and swapped jerseys.

Westmeath's county board have since clarified the matter in a statement but that got us thinking about the history of that county's jersey.

While we are used to seeing Westmeath bedecked in maroon, that has not always been the case.

Like many other counties, who either started off with different colours to the ones they wear now or used to adopt the shades of their county champions, Westmeath first wore green.

That green colouring was teamed with a white hoop and according to the annals of GAA history, was worn until 1912 when they switched to the maroon colours that we recognise them in now.

Up until the mid-1930s, the maroon jersey also included a gold-coloured sash (or saffron to be more accurate) until that was abandoned to leave us with the colour scheme we know today.

Other counties have also made drastic changes over the years like Roscommon, who once wore black and amber or white, and Longford who wore green and white hoops.

And it's hard to imagine Cork in blue and saffron, or Kerry (green and red) as they were both recorded as wearing up to 1919 and 1903 respectively.

For more on the history of county colours in GAA, head to GAA.ie.

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