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The Old County Crests

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Why were the old county crests done away with....it must be nearly 20 years since they were on the jerseys...I personally think they were far nicer than the modern ones, with historical links, family crests and cultural links on them.....I remember the Tipperary one and Kilkenny one were very similar, they both had the Butler coat of arms on them all in connection with the earl of Ormond in medieval times....id love to see them back on the jerseys.....the clare one had the o brien coat of arms also preddan (Kildare) - Posts: 736 - 22/09/2018 14:09:50 2143256 Link
https://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/gaa/football/kerrys-modern-new-county-crest-revealed-174186.html It's explained here. It was for marketing/copyrights purposes. Whammo86 (Antrim) - Posts: 4222 - 22/09/2018 15:00:34 2143262 Link
Copyright was the main reason as far as I'm aware. The old crests were too generic or belonged to someone else (e.g. the county council), which meant anybody could use them without having get permission off the county board. The county boards had to create new unique crests they could trademark themselves. Also the old crests weren't really there that long. It was only in the late 80s that all counties started to regularly put the crests on their jerseys. e.g. when Offaly hurlers won their first AI in 1981 they had no crests on their jerseys, but then their footballers beat Kerry in 1982 they did, but Kerry had no crests. CastleBravo (Meath) - Posts: 1643 - 22/09/2018 15:02:08 2143263 Link
The majority of Kerry fans would pick the old crest also Horsebox77 (Kerry) - Posts: 5491 - 22/09/2018 15:18:52 2143265 Link
Gaa county boards didn't have copyright ownership of the old crests. Basically it was a money thing really fir the gaa, copyrighted crests could only be sold on official merchandise etc. I remember chastising one of the kids when they asked what was the 3 burning ships crest all about on one of my old jerseys but realized they only really know the new crest. tearintom (Wexford) - Posts: 1336 - 22/09/2018 15:21:13 2143266 Link
The old Louth jerseys had the St Brigid's cross on it. That was up till 2005 when they put on it the new Boyne Cable Bridge at the time just outside of Drogheda. Ironically most of this bridge is in Co. Meath. In 2011 they went back to the St Brigid's cross with a new design on it. OLLIE (Louth) - Posts: 12224 - 22/09/2018 16:21:55 2143272 Link
Some of the new ones are terrible. Kildare, Kilkenny and Carlow stick out in my mind as being bad. Dublin's new one is decent though I think. Kept one Blazing Castle and included the Fingal Raven and a Viking Longboat. MesAmis (Dublin) - Posts: 13707 - 22/09/2018 19:26:47 2143286 Link
Agree totally that some old ones had more character and a few of the new ones are dreadful. I small lucky though that I have county medals in a few counties with the old and new crests on them. But the funniest of the crests is Galway who have different crest for big ball and small ball!!! theborderfox (Monaghan) - Posts: 138 - 22/09/2018 22:11:25 2143302 Link
Replying To CastleBravo: "Copyright was the main reason as far as I'm aware. The old crests were too generic or belonged to someone else (e.g. the county council), which meant anybody could use them without having get permission off the county board. The county boards had to create new unique crests they could trademark themselves. Also the old crests weren't really there that long. It was only in the late 80s that all counties started to regularly put the crests on their jerseys. e.g. when Offaly hurlers won their first AI in 1981 they had no crests on their jerseys, but then their footballers beat Kerry in 1982 they did, but Kerry had no crests." That's true, I think it was '87 before Meath had a crest on the jersey and it was around that time that counties started using them, very seldom did I see crests on jersies up to that point although I think the Dubs always had the three castles on show and Galway in the 60's seemed to have one too. Anyone remember that Limerick one that was just a white shield on the jersey?? What was that about can anyone tell me? Richieq (Meath) - Posts: 3734 - 23/09/2018 21:36:34 2143415 Link
Replying To Horsebox77: "The majority of Kerry fans would pick the old crest also" Could never really warm to it alright and we've been poor enough at senior level by our standards since its been used! I miss the wolfhound, harp and the tower of Rathoo on the crest. TheHermit (Kerry) - Posts: 6354 - 23/09/2018 22:43:00 2143431 Link
Replying To TheHermit: "Could never really warm to it alright and we've been poor enough at senior level by our standards since its been used! I miss the wolfhound, harp and the tower of Rathoo on the crest." The new Kerry one isn't the worst. It's kinda similar to the Dublin one in that at least a lot of thought went into it and there is some symbolism attached to the new one with Sceilig Mhichíl etc in it. I like it, although the older one was great too. MesAmis (Dublin) - Posts: 13707 - 24/09/2018 08:00:47 2143450 Link
https://www.balls.ie/gaa/balls-literal-meaning-32-gaa-county-crest-104446 this is enjoyable in its silliness, my own opinion is the new ones are head and shoulders above the old crests, most counties got it bang on, however i will agree kilkenny and carlow in particular need to go back to the drawing board along with Louth. Meath, Fermanagh and of course my very own cavan are top of the class, with leitrim, Down and roscommon honourable mentions theweanling (Cavan) - Posts: 414 - 24/09/2018 11:02:32 2143489 Link
Replying To MesAmis: "The new Kerry one isn't the worst. It's kinda similar to the Dublin one in that at least a lot of thought went into it and there is some symbolism attached to the new one with Sceilig Mhichíl etc in it. I like it, although the older one was great too." Well I suppose there was a good bit of thought and effort put into the symbolism of the new crest and (much like the old) how it represented Kerry as a county. But whatever about the designs of the county crests those created by clubs up and down the island can be diabolical at times. There is a few you would see around that you would swear came from giving a child a piece of paper and a couple of crayons and asking them to draw for 10 minutes. Some pretty poor ones in Kerry now such as my crest of my closet football club, St Senans. TheHermit (Kerry) - Posts: 6354 - 24/09/2018 15:59:27 2143555 Link
I know my own club recently had an issue with the soccer club using their crest to sell lotto draw tickets and had to get the crest licensed to prevent it re-occuring. WunderBar (Galway) - Posts: 290 - 25/09/2018 12:00:25 2143690 Link