Longford Crest

Today’s Longford GAA crest was first introduced in 2004, and the modern design depicts Gaelic sports (football & hurleys), the iconic St. Mels Cathedral in Longford town, an outline of County Longford and the motto ‘Gaisce agus Glaine’.

The original Longford GAA crest which preceded it was a four-quadrant design. It had it’s origins in the 1600’s and was based on the then coat of arms of Lord Francis Aungier, who held the titles of Governor of Longford and Westmeath, Baron of Longford, Viscount Longford & Earl of Longford in the 1600’s. The image shown below is from page 23 of Richard Blome’s “Britannia”, an atlas which includes an interesting series of engraved maps of the counties and other parts of Britain & Ireland, published in 1673. Here is the accompanying text (followed by modernised English where appropriate): “Ye Rt. Hon’ble Francis Ld. Aungier Baron of Longford in Ireland & Governour of ye County of Longford & Weft meath & one of ye Lords of his Ma’tys’ Privy Councell for ye Sd Kingdome &c a at Clandon in Surrey in England”. In modern English it reads “Right Honourable Francis Lord Aungier; Governor of Longford and Westmeath; one of the Lords of HisMajesty’s Privy Council for the said Kingdom; also at (East) Clandon in Surrey)“. This coat of arms would have been stamped on many official documents and reports concerning County Longford for many years during the period of British rule. If you take away the outer trappings of colonial imagery, you can see on the shield the symbols associated with Longford GAA from the 1970’s to 2004.

The first record we can find of a crest displayed on Longford county jerseys is the intermittent use of the four-quadrant ‘Aungier’ design in white on blue jerseys in the 1970’s, with the text ‘Longfort’ in white beneath it. The 1980’s saw the crest colour change from white to gold with ‘Longfort’ displayed above it, and the motto ‘Gaisce agus Glaine’ in a scroll underneath. Towards the end of the 1980’s the crest was depicted in blue on a gold background to help better display the crest on the ‘pinstripe’ jersey design of the day.

The 1990’s saw colour introduced into the crest, with red background in the top-right and bottom-left quadrants of the crest design, similar to the Aungier coat of arms. This variant of the crest with blue, red and white colours was used from 1993 to 2004. From 1995 a scroll with ‘Longfort’ was added underneath, and the scroll was then removed in 1999 and from then until 2004 the crest appeared with the text ‘Longfort’ underneath in black and then later in white colour.

The current Longford GAA crest was introduced in March 2004. The new crest was first worn on Longford jerseys in round 5 of National Football League Division 1 versus Mayo on 7th March 2004. The modern design featured the blue and gold colours of Longford GAA along with red from the previous design. The images within the crest depicted GAA sports (football and hurleys), Longford’s iconic St. Mels Cathedral and an outline map of County Longford with ‘1887’ within it. Underneath is a scroll with the motto ‘Gaisce agus Glaine’ (Bravery and Honour).

The reason for 1887 in the current crest design is not clear. The origin of the GAA in Longford actually dates back to 1888 and the formation and affiliation of the first Longford club under GAA rules (Granard Healys) in September 1888, while the Longford County Board was formed on 13th October 1889.