Time to bring GAA kit history to book

On Thursday morning, I received a delightful phone-call from a lady whose number indicated she was in Belgium.

Apparently, back in 2021, I signed up for some cryptocurrency thing and was given some Bitcoin worth €10 – the great news was that it was now worth €434,000. Sadly, she didn’t have my correct bank details for lodging the money, so she just needed some more information from me to expedite matters.

I asked what email address she had for me and, when she told me, I expressed doubt as it was one that I had never set up, let alone ever used. “It was a long time ago,” she said, suggesting that I might have forgotten. That’s when I knew she had to be a scammer.

In my head, 2002 was yesterday, so 2021 is five minutes ago. But, at the same time, it’s two Cork jerseys ago.

In the modern world, where misinformation – or disinformation, if you’re of a cynical bent – is rife, the preservation of history is ever more important. While it is just a trifling matter in the big picture, charting the colours worn by the teams we love is certainly a worthwhile endeavour.

Imagine that I were to fall asleep for a hundred years and then, on awakening, take myself to SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh (or whatever naming rights may apply to it by then). I find a team in red and white playing one in green and gold – despite knowing none of the players or anything about them, I would still automatically know which side to shout for.

The people may change but the colours remain constant – like Jerry Seinfeld once said, you’re rooting for clothes when you get right down to it. But those ‘clothes’ mean so much more beyond the material.

Popular lore has it that Cork switched to red in 1920, having worn saffron and blue up to then, but even that hides a few inaccuracies. Research by Sunday Times journalist Michael Foley shows that Cork first wore red against Waterford in 1919 and that followed a decade where, along with blue and saffron, they also appeared in green along with a Clare-style kit.

While it might be grandiose to coin the term ‘kitography’, books displaying kit or uniform histories are not uncommon across other sports. Marc Okkonen produced a magnificent tome entitled Baseball Uniforms of the 20th Century in 1991 and that can be considered the godfather to all that followed.

In terms of association football, John Devlin is the original gangster, producing three marvellous volumes from 2005 onwards, and things have mushroomed since then.

I have been lucky enough to contribute graphics to publications on the Australia rugby jersey and those of Chelsea FC and Swiss side FC Basel, but to compile a comprehensive GAA offering remains near the top of the bucket-list.

Beyond the actual garments themselves, there are some fascinating stories – Cork having to engage in a mad scramble to retrieve Jimmy Barry-Murphy’s jersey from a Clerys window-display before the 1973 All-Ireland; Kerry’s various deals with adidas risking censure from GAA headquarters; the odd sponsor out for Meath in the four-game marathon with Dublin in 1991; and Donegal (1992) and Sligo (2001) reversing their colours after famous victories in change kits.

I’m biased but all of these things need to be recorded in the one place; perhaps it is hubris but I think I’m the one to do it.

Hopefully, by putting it out into the universe, I will manifest it. And the €434,000 coming my way will certainly help with publication costs.