'Made in Ireland' rule still applies on GAA playing gear for now

Last weekend’s GAA congress in Donegal town featured 40 motions for discussion.

The changes to the All-Ireland senior football championship from 2026 took a lot of attention, while proposed handpass alterations in hurling were considered too revolutionary and that vote was heavily lost.

Motion number 39 was not accompanied by too much fanfare, but, if passed, it could have represented a major deviation.

As things stand, article 1.18 of the GAA’s Official Guide, sub-headed ‘Playing gear and equipment’, states that: “All jerseys, shorts, stockings, tracksuits (tops and bottoms) and kitbags, worn and/or used for official matches, in pre-match or post-match television or video interviews, player walk-ups and photographs, shall be of Irish manufacture. This requirement shall also apply to replica playing gear.”

Had motion 39 been successful, the long-standing stipulation regarding production in Ireland would have been removed. Instead, it was withdrawn before it could be debated on Saturday morning and referred to a special congress.

It is an emotive topic, but there is a likelihood that, if it had ever been challenged in court, it could have been regarded as protectionism under EU law and so changing the rule democratically would ward this off.

With the removal of the need for Irish manufacture, the easy conclusion is that the GAA market would be open to foreign kit-making giants, like Adidas, Nike or Puma.

Whether the demand here is strong enough to warrant one of the big boys trying to shake O’Neill’s dominance is another question entirely, though.

Of course, Adidas do have previous when it comes to Gaelic games. In the 1980s, the Cork-based company Three Stripe International — Adidas’s Irish agents — had deals with Kerry and later Tipperary. After Three Stripe closed, Emerald Active Wear and Millfield were two succeeding companies who produced for Adidas and made the Kerry gear under their own names, before another attempt by Adidas to make the Kingdom strip in 1998.

Dublin firm JA Hickey made the jerseys under licence, though initial wrangling meant that the Adidas logo was absent from the jerseys until the All-Ireland semi-final against Kildare. Kerry lost that and so demand for the kit dropped, while the following year they lost to Cork in the Munster SFC final.

When JA Hickey went out of business in late 1999, Kerry sought to change the ‘Irish-made’ rule, but were unsuccessful and so they joined forces with O’Neill’s, a partnership that still endures.

Of course, Cork have been wearing gear made by the Dublin company for as long as anyone can remember, though there was some controversy in the 1970s, when members of the county football team struck their own deal with Adidas.

In the 1980s, Three Stripe International did seek to secure the Cork contract more than once, but were rebuffed.

One of the actual Adidas prototypes materialised — pardon the pun — last year and was sold by Golazzo Football Shirts, based in Marina Market.

It represents a lovely piece of what-if GAA history. If the rules were to change, might an Adidas Cork jersey actually come to pass?