Cork’s Blood and Bandage Jersey 100 years old.
May 18, 2019
May 18th 2019 marks the 100th anniversary of Cork wearing their famed red and white jersey for the first time. The original Cork GAA jersey was a blue and saffron jersey with a large yellow C on it, But in the spring of 1919 the Cork GAA offices in Cook Street were raided by the occupying British forces and the jerseys were stolen and never returned.
With championship approaching and a set of jerseys needed Cork GAA turned to the Fr O’Leary Total Abstinence Hall team which had recently amalgamated with the St Finbarrs and as a result the FR O’ Learys jersey were not needed. Those were the famous red and white colours — though with a TA, or total abstinence, logo and were used by the county team. Cork hurlers and footballers played Waterford in a double header on May 18th 1919 in Dungarvan with what was to become their famed red and white jersey first on display. The hurlers defeated Waterford 9-4 to 4-0 while the footballers were defeated 2-0 to 0-2.
In 2016, to mark the centenary on the 1916 rising the Cork hurlers wore a replica of original blue and saffron jersey in a national league game against Kilkenny.
