GAA County Jerseys: A Guide to Every County's Colours
GAA county jerseys follow one simple rule: every county plays in its own set of colours, worn by the senior footballers and hurlers alike, and those colours barely change from one generation to the next. Kerry wear green and gold, Dublin sky blue and navy, Kilkenny black and amber. Below is the full county-by-county guide to the colours of all 32 counties, grouped by province, so you can place any jersey at a glance.
How GAA county colours work
County colours are remarkably stable. Unlike a soccer club that can switch palette with a new sponsor, a GAA county tends to keep the same shades for decades — the jersey is updated by the manufacturer every year or two, but the colours underneath stay put. Most counties field two or three colours; a handful, like Kildare's famous all-white, run with a single shade and lean on the shorts or trim for contrast. The home jersey carries the primary colours, with an away (or "change") jersey kept in reserve for days when two counties would otherwise clash. Goalkeepers wear a different colour again, so they stand out from both outfield teams — which is why a county's goalkeeper jersey is often the most unusual-looking shirt in its range. Across a season, then, a single county can put three or four distinct jerseys on the pitch while never straying from its own colours. If you want the deeper story of where each palette came from, we cover that in our piece on why counties wear the colours they do.
One quick note on reading the list: the same county colours cover both codes, so the difference between a hurling and a Gaelic football jersey is in the cut and collar, not the palette. A Tipperary hurling jersey and a Tipperary football jersey are both blue and gold.
Leinster county jerseys
The eastern province is the broadest church of colours in the GAA, from Dublin's instantly recognisable sky blue to Wexford's purple and gold.
| County | Colours |
|---|---|
| Carlow | Red, green and yellow |
| Dublin | Sky blue and navy |
| Kildare | White (the Lilywhites) |
| Kilkenny | Black and amber |
| Laois | Blue and white |
| Longford | Blue and gold |
| Louth | Red and white |
| Meath | Green and gold |
| Offaly | Green, white and gold |
| Westmeath | Maroon and white |
| Wexford | Purple and gold |
| Wicklow | Blue and gold |
Kildare's nickname, the Lilywhites, comes straight off the jersey — the all-white kit is one of the most distinctive in the country, and one of the few that relies on a single colour.
Munster county jerseys
Munster is hurling's heartland, and its county jerseys are among the most collected anywhere — Cork's red and white and Kerry's green and gold in particular.
| County | Colours |
|---|---|
| Clare | Saffron and blue |
| Cork | Red and white |
| Kerry | Green and gold |
| Limerick | Green and white |
| Tipperary | Blue and gold |
| Waterford | White and blue |
Cork's red-and-white jersey is nicknamed the "blood and bandage", one of the best-loved descriptions of any county jersey. Clare's saffron, meanwhile, is a shade you will struggle to find on any other county's shirt.
Connacht county jerseys
The western province has only five counties, but it packs in two of the most recognisable jerseys in the game: Galway's maroon and Mayo's green and red.
| County | Colours |
|---|---|
| Galway | Maroon and white |
| Leitrim | Green and gold |
| Mayo | Green and red |
| Roscommon | Primrose and blue |
| Sligo | Black and white |
Roscommon's primrose and blue is the outlier of the group — primrose is a soft yellow you will not see on any other senior county jersey, which makes a Roscommon shirt easy to spot on any rail.
Ulster county jerseys
Ulster rounds out the 32 with nine counties and a run of strong, high-contrast colours — Tyrone's white and red, Donegal's green and gold, Armagh's orange.
| County | Colours |
|---|---|
| Antrim | Saffron and white |
| Armagh | Orange and white |
| Cavan | Blue and white |
| Derry | Red and white |
| Donegal | Green and gold |
| Down | Red and black |
| Fermanagh | Green and white |
| Monaghan | White and blue |
| Tyrone | White and red |
Armagh are the province's best colour-change story. Up to 1926 the county wore black and amber, much like Kilkenny; they switched to orange after turning out in a set of jerseys knitted by local Poor Clare nuns, and the Orchard County have worn orange ever since.
The patterns across the 32
Lay the full list out and the overlaps jump out. Green and gold is the most common pairing in the country — Kerry, Meath, Leitrim and Donegal all share it, which is exactly why change jerseys exist. Blue runs through a huge number of counties in different combinations, from Dublin's sky blue to Tipperary's and Longford's blue and gold. And a few shades belong to just one county: Roscommon's primrose, Clare's saffron-and-blue mix, Wexford's purple. Those single-county colours are the ones collectors tend to prize, because there is no mistaking them for anyone else.
There is also a rough geography to it. Leinster is the most varied province, with everything from Dublin's sky blue to Wexford's purple spread across its 12 counties. Munster leans hard on red, green and gold. Connacht has the two best-known western jerseys in Galway's maroon and Mayo's green and red. Ulster carries the sharpest contrasts of the lot, with Tyrone, Derry and Down all built on bold two-tone combinations. Learn the provinces and you are most of the way to placing any jersey you pick up.
Nicknames often, but not always, track the colours. The Lilywhites and the blood and bandage come straight from the jersey; others, like Tyrone's Red Hand or Kerry's Kingdom, come from heraldry and history rather than the shirt. If you enjoy the shirts that became part of the folklore, our rundown of the most iconic GAA jerseys of all time is the natural next read, and the camogie and ladies' football jerseys carry the same county colours into the women's game.
Collecting county jerseys by colour
Knowing the colours by county is the first skill any jersey collector picks up, because the palette is how you date and place a shirt before you even check the crest. A collection built around the 32 counties is a map of the whole country, and half the fun is in the ones you did not go looking for. That is the idea behind a mystery Gaelic football shirt — you order the box and the county that lands is a surprise, which is a quick way to end up with colours you would never have bought on purpose. Every shirt is a genuine, officially licensed jersey; the only thing left to chance is which county's colours turn up.
FAQs
How many GAA counties are there?
There are 32 counties across the four provinces — 12 in Leinster, six in Munster, five in Connacht and nine in Ulster — and each plays in its own county colours in both football and hurling.
Do hurling and football jerseys use different county colours?
No. A county uses the same colours in both codes, so a Cork hurling jersey and a Cork football jersey are both red and white. The difference between the two is in the cut and collar, not the palette.
Which county has the most unusual jersey colours?
Roscommon's primrose and blue is the most unusual senior county combination, with primrose a soft yellow worn by no other county. Clare's saffron and Wexford's purple are two more shades that belong to a single county.