In the Spring of 1919 police raided the offices of the Cork County Board at 37 Cook Street. During the raid, the policemen seized the set of jerseys of the Cork team. They left the premises with the jerseys which were never seen again but, this instance of suppression put in motion Cork's colour change from blue and gold to the now famous red and white.
Before they sported and played in red and white, Cork hurlers and footballers wore blue jerseys with an large golden “C” embroidered on the chest. A replica of this old jersey was released in 2016 to coincide with the centenary of the 1916 Rising.
After the 1916 Rising the British authorities viewed the GAA as a hotbed of Republican activity and in 1919 the county board offices in the city centre were raided. Among the items seized were the blue county team jerseys. The Cork hurlers were only days away from a Munster Semi final and without their jerseys they found themselves in a precarious situation.
As luck turned out, the Father O’Leary Temperance Hall team from the Lough had just annexed with St Finbarrs. Con Sheehan, who ran a pub down Barrack Street, had heard of Corks jersey plight and he suggested to the County Board that as Fr Learys had no more use for their red and white kit that they should use it for the jerseyless county team. So, the team of pioneers handed over their jerseys to the county board via a publican! Because there were only 15 jerseys from the Fr O’Leary team, the county board made a quick order into the Munster Arcade for 6 white pullovers to serve as substitutes jerseys.
The 1919 Cork team with the new Red & White jerseys!
With their new colours the Cork team played against Tipperary in the Munster hurling semi final at the Athletic grounds. Apart from it being the first time Cork lined out in the red and white, it was also the first time the price of a match ticket increased. Entry at the turnstiles went up from 6 pence to a shilling and some disgruntled supporters refused to pay. Instead they broke through some sheet iron at the back of the goal and gained entry into the grounds to watch the match for free!
Cork got through Tipperary, 2-04 to 2-03 and took their new colours to Limerick for the Munster Hurling final. Cork convincingly beat Limerick on a scoreline of 3-05 to 1-06 and their next opponents were Galway in the All Ireland semi final on September 7th. Still clad in their new colours, Cork gave the tribesmen an unmerciful beating of 3-08 to 0-02.
The next stop for the red and white of Cork was the All Ireland Hurling Final at Croke Park on September 21st. Corks opponents were a much fancied Dublin side but the rebels unleashed a fine game of hurling on the dubs and beat them 6-04 to 2-04 to claim All Ireland honours. The Cork hurlers ended a 15 year wait to bring an All Ireland title back to Leeside. The new colours were considered lucky and the Cork County Board decided to retain them.
Today the red and white colours are deeply associated with Cork GAA but if the oppressive authorities of 1919 hadn’t seized the original county colours then perhaps blue would have remained the standard colours of the rebel county.
The first red & white Cork team 1919:
1 Ned Grey (Carrigtwohill)
2 Paddy O’Halloran (St Mary’s)
3 Jackie Murphy (Blackrock)
4 Mick Murphy (Blackrock)
5 Frank Kelleher (Shamrocks)
6 Con Sheehan (Redmond’s)
7 Jim Hasset (Collegian’s)
8 Tim Nagle (St Mary’s)
9 John O’Keefe (Carrigtwohill)
10 Paddy Ahern (Blackrock)
11 Daniel Ring (St Finbarrs)
12 Jimmy Kennedy (C) (Carrigtwohill)
13 Con Lucy (Carrigtwohill)
14 Dick O’Gorman (St Finbarrs)
15 John Barry-Murphy (Cloughduv)
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