Irish League Shirts

In 2007, when the Irish Premier League XI faced the England National Game XI at Mourneview, they wore a Northern Ireland kit for the first time. 

Up to that point, Irish League representative sides had worn bespoke kits, but it was a sign of the times as the administration of the Irish Football League was being absorbed into the Irish Football Association. The term "Irish League" is now just coloquial shorthand for the NIFL (which was (re)spun off from the IFA in 2013).

It is tricky to track the details of all kits worn by the Irish League since 1890, with even colours being hard to confirm, but below is an attempt to give a snapshot.

1914

1930s

1942 (Northern Regional / War-Time League)

1949

In the 1930s the Irish FA switched from blue to green, but it seems the Irish League had been wearing green in the decades before. Certainly in 1930 through the rest of the decade the first choice jersey was green with a lace-up collar which by then was a comparatively dated style.

The Irish League was suspended for the duration of the Second World War with the replacement Northern Regional League taking it's place. When they faced the League of Ireland in Dublin in 1942 they played in a jersey that could easily have been borrowed from Ulster Rugby. 

After the War the Irish League's jerseys closely mirrored those worn by the international team, though a stylistic flourish seen on the 1949 kit was a stripe down the shorts and a simplified shamrock badge temprorarily replaced the Irish League crest. 

1954-1956

1957

1966

With fixtures against the League or Ireland the most common match-up in this era, alternatives would have been regularly required. White and possibly blue appear to have been regularly utilised.

The short stripes were still in place by the mid-1950s, but the badge had evolved further. For a famous 5-2 victory over the English League in 1956 a shamrock was inset in a cross. Again, colouring is uncertain - could the background have been yellow instead of white? A simpler shamrock badge design was used for the 1957 meeting with the League of Ireland.

In 1966 when the Irish League were hammered by the a Football League XI featuring six of England's World Cup winning side the kits worn by both sides could easily have been mistaken for their international counterparts, bar the badges.

1978

c.1984

1986

Inter-League fixtures began to disappear from the schedule in the 1970s, but the kit worn against the Scottish League in 1978 certainly provides some interesting points. The Umbro jersey, without Irish League badge, was in the same style as Glasgow Rangers. However, the shorts and socks, as well as the team's tracksuits, were definitely Adidas and matched those worn by Northern Ireland. At the time Umbro had a long-standing agreement as Adidas' UK distributors.

Umbro were fully supplanted as Northern Ireland's kit supplier by Adidas in the late-1970s. In the early 1980s Le Coq Sportif, who supplied Linfield for a lengthy period around this time, also supplied the Irish League's representative XI. Bukta, a fixture in kit supply in previous decades, briefly supplied the Irish League in the mid-1980s. 

1987

By the late-1980s football shirts were beginning to show a bit more flair, and the chequered pattern worn in 1987 certainly raised some eyebrows.

1989

1989 (alternative)

1990

In 1989 the Irish League set-off for a tour of the USA with two kits in their hamper. The first kit was a green version of a template also worn by Aberdeen. The alternative was a blue/white hooped number with green trim.

The following year, as the Irish League celebrated it's centenary with grand matches against the Football League and Manchester United, they wore blue in an Umbro template that was also used by Luton Town for their away kits.

1992

1995

2012

In 1992 another Umbro template was employed as Everton visited the Oval. A 1995 match against the League of Ireland in Dublin saw the team wear all-white in a similar style to Spurs' kit. This jersey was also used for publicity shots for the Smirnoff Irish League team of the year.

The most recent Irish League representative XI took the field for Harry Gregg's Testimonial in 2012. Although the Irish Football League was by then defunct the shirt featured their badge.

The Irish Premier League wore this Northern Ireland kit-combo in 2007