Roscommon GAA have debuted their new jersey for the 2025 inter-county season and there is one "ewe-nique" change to the crest - it now features the correct Roscommon sheep.

Last year both Roscommon County Council and Roscommon GAA were asked by sheep breeders to look at whether they were using the correct breed of sheep on their crests.

The county crest did contain the correct breed, but the GAA crest did not.

Known for their wavy white wool, the Roscommon breed are starkly different from the black and white headed sheep that featured on the previous crest.

They are a lowland breed originating in east Galway and Roscommon. By 1870 the sheep was recgonised by the Royal Dublin Society and was afforded its own class in various shows.

The breed are known for their heavy fleeces and large frame. It was the most prominent breed of sheep to be found in the midlands of Ireland in the 1800s but with the decline in the mutton trade and the introduction of overseas breeds it fell out of popularity.

In 1895 Roscommon Sheep Breeders’ Association was founded in Tulsk, Co. Roscommon, but by the mid 1920s it became defunct and the sheep class at the RDS ceased altogether in 1937.

Despite these changes, a small number of farmers in Co. Roscommon continued to breed these sheep and it is the remnants of these flocks that exist today.

According to the Irish Rare Breeds society it has been working to preserve and promote the breed, in 2021 the society received funding from the Genetic Resources Grant Aid Scheme to carry out a genetic analysis on the remaining specimens.

Following the results a specific mating programme was drawn up by Sheep Ireland selectinggenetic and phenotypically correct sheep as per the original breed standards, to aid the breeders going forward to obtain more correct specimens in the future.