Photo courtesy of Bradley Quinn (www.bradleyquinn.com)

It was a very special night in Northern Ireland on Saturday, with 40,000 people crammed into Bangor’s Ward Park for a Snow Patrol gig – the largest concert ever staged in the country. By all accounts, it was a top gig, with the band on top form, but there was something else that made it extra special. As the band came out for their encore, frontman Gary Lightbody strolled out on stage wearing the new Northern Ireland home shirt, revealing it for the first time. Kicking into ‘Just Say Yes’ to round off their triumphant gig, Snow Patrol rounded off a terrific night in style, Tailored By Umbro.

Photo by Kirth Ferris

The new shirt will be worn by Northern Ireland’s footballing stars in the qualifying matches for the 2012 European Championships, which kick off later this year. As part of Umbro’s tailored collection, the Northern Ireland home shirt will help the players to perform to the best of their ability, with a fit that moves with the player’s body and material that is built with comfort in mind.

Photo by Kirth Ferris

The shirt has two tones with a slightly darker colour next to the traditional lighter green that Northern Ireland are known for. It’ll be worn with white shorts, and will be available from July 6th.

Photo by Kirth Ferris

If you want to catch the reveal as it happened, you can see the Snow Patrol show, including the shirt reveal, on BBC Northern Ireland tomorrow night at 11.15pm – channel 992 on Sky, check your digi-box to see if you can pick it up!

Staying in Northern Ireland, one of the country’s top clubs have also recently revealed the new kits that they’ll be wearing next season. Not only created by Umbro but sponsored by them as well, Linfield FC’s new kits are a perfect fit for the current IFA champions. Their home kit was revealed back in March, and last week the double winners revealed their away shirts, which you can see here: