The Black and Amber

You may be wondering about the colours used on the site. Our club colours are Black & Amber. The Black and Amber colours are synonymous with Kilkenny.

Ireland's native games are Rounders, Gaelic Football, Camogie and Hurling. These games are promoted by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA). This last game is the fastest field game in the world and the Kilkenny county hurling team has a long history of achieving greatness. The county has won 27 Senior All Ireland titles at this stage. The Kilkenny colours are Black & Amber. To find out more about hurling try here .

According to Tom Ryall, the historian of Kilkenny GAA, Kilkenny made its first ever appearance in an All -Ireland final in 1893 and they wore Black And Amber jersies. The jersies belonged to the Thomas Larum's football club which had gone out of existence and didn't need the jersies any more. Sadly, they lost that match to Cork. But have contested over 50 all ireland finals since then.

In the Kilkenny Journal report of the 1905 All -Ireland, the reporter criticised Kilkenny for appearing in every kind of jersey. In the replay, the same reporter congratulated Kilkenny for appearing so neat in their Black and Amber jersies.

Following 1905, however, there was continual squabbling between Mooncoin and Tullaroan about which jersies should be used for the county. In order to cut out this petty fighting which was costing Kilkenny matches, John Drennan presented the County Board with a set of Black and Amber jersies in December 1911. Kilkenny have been wearing the Black and Amber colours to success ever since.

Interestingly, hurling and hockey share some common ground, both being a field game played with a stick and ball. But there are many differences.

When hurling was being promoted by the fledgling Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) formed in 1884, there were many variants played in the country. One such was 'Hurley". The 'Irish Hurley Union' was formed in 1879. In 1898 it joined with the Ulster Hockey Union to form the Irish Hockey Union (IHU) in 1898, when Interprovincial games began.

Kilkenny concentrated on Hurling as promoted by the GAA at the expense of Hurley. Although we may not be playing the same game, our club is trying to do what the hurling team has done. Our aim is eventual world domination in the game but first we need to win in Leinster.

Here endeth the lesson.