heritageatplay

Archive for 2010|Yearly archive page

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The Broadcast from Dublin #7: A Final Farewell

In Broadcasts, Reflections, Travel on July 19, 2010 at 10:59 pm

(Click on blog title to see full video!)

Our time in Ireland is now over but Colleen and I are proud to share a final Broadcast from Dublin. When we made our first one over three weeks ago, we hoped we would be able to make four or five by the end of the trip. Instead, we made nine! Seven in Dublin, one from Offaly, and one from Cork total over 45 minutes of Irish adventures!

This latest Broadcast is a big of compendium. We’ve got highlights from throughout the trip that we didn’t have time (or cause) to share before. Like the cat who hid under the Book of Kells library at Trinity College we fed once in a while, or the horse in the castle in Offaly that Colleen tried to help tame. There is some action from me enjoying a hurling match at O’Donoghue’s Pub on Nassau Street, and footage from our trip to the Abbey Theatre- Ireland’s National Theatre renowned for premiering works by Beckett, Yeats, and Sean O’Casey.

And then there is Dublin at Midnight. We were late coming home from Cork, and missed the last bus home to Rathmines. So we walked home instead, allowing us an opportunity to reflect on the way the trip has gone. Which would be quite well.

Though this is the last Broadcast from Dublin, it is not the end of our project. Indeed, we have quite some work still ahead of us, with a feature-length documentary to cull from our hours of footage. Now back in the US, that task takes top priority, even while Colleen goes back to work at Boston’s Institute for Contemporary Art, and I prepare for a week-long Digital Humanities conference in Washington, DC! We miss Ireland already, but at least we’ve got these Broadcasts to celebrate our time there!

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Impressions of Hurling

In Competitions, Games, Reflections on July 16, 2010 at 6:05 pm

Hurling has been celebrated as the fastest game on grass. And indeed it is quite fast, with the ball flying around the field in just a few seconds. Which can make watching the sport somewhat trying. Like ice hockey, one needs to learn how to follow the game properly anticipating like the players where the ball is going rather than where it was. Unlike gaelic football, the focal point is not a large white ball, but a blurred streak of white sometimes hidden in a players hand, sometimes streaking across the sky, sometimes buried in the grass or hidden in a scrum of players. And this chaos and mystery becomes the beauty of the game, as the carnage occasionally gives way to striking clarity- a single man balancing the sliotar on his hurl as he hurtles down the field. Which in GAA speak is called soloing. And when the moment is right, a player pops the sliotar up in the air and strikes it. The flight is followed by the entire stadium held in collective rapture. Like a long fly ball in baseball, the moment is charged with anticipation: will the ball work its way over the bar for a point?

Further thoughts:

  1. The game is surprisingly safe. You would not expect this given that each of the 30 players on the field have been armed with wooden axes, but injuries seem uncommon. In three games, we saw no one get seriously hurt. Which was surprising.
  2. The ball spends very little time on the ground. One can hit the ball on the ground as much as he likes. And the sport traditionally shares a common background with (field) hockey so it does have a history of on the ground action. But none of the players feel comfortable with it down there. They want it up in the air.
  3. The ball is very hard. Incredibly similar to a baseball. And dudes take it off the chest, arm, etc. With no complaints. Ouch.
  4. The goal is glorious. It’s all about the goal. Points are nice, and that’s where you win the game. But the goal brings everyone to their feet. And it can make up a huge gap and the end of the day. Last week for instance Waterford tied Cork in the last seconds by scoring a goal to make up the three point gap.
  5. It’s really fun. There is lots of scoring, but the game’s are usually tight. The crack of the hurl on the sliotar is a wonderful sound, and the game is dynamic. Lots of action to observe and relish. Especially on a surprisingly sunny day in Croke Park

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Mapping Heritage at Play

In Culture, Reflections, Travel on July 16, 2010 at 12:46 am

View Larger Map

Despite a short time frame, Colleen and I have seen a good amount of Ireland. We’ve been south to Cork, Bray in County Wicklow, and Kilmacud in South Dublin. We’ve been North to Malahide and Croke Park. We’ve been west to Phoenix Park in Dublin and all around County Offaly. And what’s more, we’ve encountered Meath, Louth, Galway, and Westmeath in their county teams.

So what does that look like on a map? Well, to answer that question, we’ve gone ahead and actually mapped out where we’ve been and what we’ve seen. As you’ll notice, we’ve been a bit Leinster heavy. Ireland, as you may know, is divided into four provinces, which are each made up of a collection of the 32 counties. Leinster, the eastern most region, is represented by the harp and is associated with the seat of Irish administration in Tara (in old times) and Dublin (in modern times).The other four provinces are Ulster (to the North), Connacht (to the West), and Munster (to the South)

We actually managed to get into each province except Ulster. Crossing into Galway and Roscommon during our stay in Offaly, we saw the parts of Connacht bordering the River Shannon. When we traveled south to Cork we crossed into Munster, which is symbolized by the three crowns. Ulster, which is largely comprised of Northern Ireland, proved a bridge too far for our project. We had hoped to get up there on Monday by that would have brought our trip right into the Twelfth of July activities, where Protestant Orangemen celebrate their victory in the Battle of the Boyne. This usually proves a volatile political situation, and this year was no exception with explosive rioting and a few bombings.

But that can’t take away from everything we did see. So take a look at where we went. And, if you want to mark some sites we should consider, add them into this public map! The map will also be permanently available on the map button in our top navigation bar.

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The Broadcast from Dublin #6: Special Gaelic Football Edition

In Broadcasts, Games, Reflections on July 14, 2010 at 11:53 am

(Click on post title to view full video please!)

In the 6th Broadcast from Dublin, Zack and I visit Phoenix Park to take advantage of the large and vacant pitches and picturesque atmosphere to try our hand at the gaelic games. While we already had hurling lessons from Ross O’Carroll at Kilmacud Crokes, nobody had the free time to teach us gaelic football. With a diagrammatic and colorful book on the fundamentals of gaelic football in hand, we tried out the sport, with many charming bloopers. I promise I am much more coordinated than this video shows!

While we enjoyed the outdoors and the wide open fields, we were careful to steer clear of the primary occupants of the park, a large herd of deer. They seems unperturbed by our games and silly antics, and we are grateful for their hospitality.

Check out the video above, which is surely the most humorous to date: complete with walking shots through Dublin, colorful shots of the fundamentals of gaelic football, and hilarious mess-ups, you will be impressed by Zack’s athleticism, and understand why I am best at sports that require the least amount of coordination.

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Chaos at Croke Park: Too Many Men on the Field

In Culture, Games, News on July 14, 2010 at 9:53 am

Headlines from the scandal at Croke Park

Croke Park, as we discovered, is a sacred place in the hearts and minds of GAA folks. In the daily newspapers, the stadium is often called “headquarters” reflecting the fact that the stadium is literally where the GAA’s central management is, and where all roads lead, with the All-Ireland final and other important games being staged at the north Dublin site.

When we first visited the  “Croker” we were pleasantly surprised to find the park very hands off and permissive in its attitudes towards its fans. We were not only allowed to bring our cameras in (THANK GOD) but also our tripods, and even outside food and drink a total no-no in American stadium policies.  The entire place was staffed by volunteer stewards, called Maor in Irish, who were sometimes generously slow in taking alcohol from spectators (“give it here” “let me finish it?” “…ok”) . And the entire place was remarkably open for moving about between seats, coming as close as possible onto the pitch, and most shockingly, even allowing fans to run onto the field if the spirit took them after a thrilling match.

All this is now under question around Ireland after a shocking Meath-Louth Leinster Senior Football Final was decided by a dubious goal. As you remember we saw Meath put away Dublin to get hear, but it was Louth surprisingly who were about to win their first Leinster title in 53 years when the ref awarded a goal that replays show was blatantly illegal. The goal when in seconds before full time to give Meath the win and the title.

Angry, several Louth fans rushed the pitch and actually accosted the referee. Several players also became engaged in fights, and in a hail of angry debris from the stands, a volunteer steward was knocked unconscious. While Louth fans and players call for a replay (these are a common way of resolving tied games rather than with extra-time) the nation of Ireland is scandalized by the violence at Croke Park towards match officials and the innocent steward. The safety and innocence of Croke park is what is most at stake, as the tranquil, permissive place we traveled to may be fenced and overstaffed with stringent security to prevent any repeats of this low moment for gaelic games.

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The Broadcast from Dublin #5: How to Play Hurling

In Broadcasts, Competitions, Games on July 13, 2010 at 2:38 pm

(Click on post title to see full video!)

The moment we (Zack) have all been waiting for is finally here. The hurl has been procured, the field found, and sliotar itching to be struck. But how does all this work then? What are the rules? What are the techniques? How, after all this watching, does the playing of hurling actually occur?

Ross O’Carroll, a stand-out Kilmacud Crokes star and Dublin inter-county player, took the time to show us. (The man has his own wikipedia page, so you know he’s legit). Ross is a master with the hurl, effortlessly taking up the Ash (as in the type of wood) hurl, and bouncing the sliotar anywhere he chooses.

Introducing us to the fact that in hurling:

  1. You cannot pick up the ball with your hand so you must
  2. Use the hurl to flick the ball to your hand using either
  3. The roll-lift (see video) or
  4. The jab-lift to gain possession

After that, a player may

  1. Run four steps before hitting the ball away
  2. Or run four steps and throw ball on the hurl, balancing it on the end of the stick as you run
  3. Or flicking the ball between hand and hurl with only two catches permitted before you whack the ball away

Sound confusing? It is, kinda. But take a look at the video and you may get better feel for the game. After all, games are meant to be played, not described, so playing this sport gave us a much better idea of how it actually goes about.

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The Sunday Game: the GAA in media

In Culture, News, Reflections on July 12, 2010 at 10:56 am



(As always, Click on the blog title to see full videos!)

No we do not mean the World Cup Final, though we did take in that game at the omniously titled Bleeding Horse Pub on Camden Street. We mean the Irish Sunday Game, which is to say, the National Irish coverage of GAA action every Sunday evening and afternoon.

One of the things we were very interested in when we first arrived in Ireland was the way the GAA would be represented in media. This meant newspaper coverage, advertisements, television, and in pub settings in promotional materials. In this category, we have not been disappointed, with pages on every Irish daily taking time to dig into GAA goings-on, and to offer commentary on past and forthcoming games.

RTE, Ireland’s National Television and Radio network, leads the coverage of these activities with weekend programs called the Saturday Game and the Sunday Game (sometimes with the additional “live” meaning they are actually broadcasting a game not just speaking on it.

On Saturday, with a steady rain falling on Grafton Street, Colleen and I did a very Dublin thing and popped in O’Donoghue’s Pub to watch the “Saturday Game” which was between the local blue Dubs and Clare in hurling. Minutes earlier, Colleen had bought her very own hurl at Elvery’s Sporting Goods across the street. So while we watched the game and sipped Kilkennys, Colleen kept glancing at her hurl and tossing the sliotar to herself, thinking about when we would be able to take a whack at the game ourselves.

Gaelic Games are almost always exciting affairs. There is lots of scoring, but there is usually not a lot to separate the team’s leading to exciting conclusions. This happened twice yesterday (live on RTE coverage) with Meath defeating Louth on a dubious goal, and Waterford tying Cork with a last second (and very legal) goal of their own. Stuff like this is what pundits dream of, and so the Sunday Game post-coverage was all about the what-ifs and perhapses of how things might have gone. Between the coverage, ads depicting hurling and gaelic football all but made me forget that the World Cup was even continuing somewhere else in the world. In Ireland, the GAA’s activities remain in the forefront of national athletic imaginations, with soccer somewhere lurking there behind.

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Several Fans in One: The politics of the unaffiliated GAA fan

In Competitions, Culture, Games on July 11, 2010 at 7:33 pm

Having  seen us don Dublin blue, Kilkenny black and yellow, and Galway’s maroon, some of our readership may be feeling that in our efforts to embrace the excitement of GAA action we have undercut one of the organization’s most intrinsic principles: pride in your specific county. This is a fair gripe, for indeed as many GAA members have told us, you are born into your club, you do not choose it. And if you have to relocate to other parts of Ireland, you only change clubs under great duress. If the commute (and everyone initially tries to commute from their new home back to their club/county) is too long, only then can you switch allegiances. Even then, clubs members will still introduce you as a former member of so-and-so even when you’ve raised your children at the new club, and lived there for over twenty years. County colors run deep.

With all this culture in mind, its been a bit cheap to switch colors for every match we watch. No doubt this superficiality is a sure sign of our persistent American sports identities, which generally permit such movement between loyalties. That is, unless you were to be a Boston Red Sox/Celtics fan like me, in which case you might feel a certain twinge of embarrassment at moving between counties and clubs so freely. Which I do.

But what are we to do? We’ve only just arrived, we’ve no home base, and even while the Dubs are technically our home team, we’ve learned that Dubs fandom can be undesirable. There are too many of them, we were told in the country. Support someone small, like Offaly!

We still haven’t committed. Its more fun supporting the sport over any specific tribe. We salute the beauty of the game, and the way it is played with care and pride. As for the pride of its fans, there is no denying their commitment. And for that, over all over things, we stand with them, scarves held aloft, our voices rising with theirs.

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The Broadcast from Cork

In Broadcasts, Games, History on July 10, 2010 at 5:51 pm

Back from the Rebel County, we are pleased to present our latest broadcast. Cork is a land where both gaelic football and hurling thrive, with hurling legend Christy Ring and the celebrated Nemo Rangers calling the county home. With a tour from Nemo member Tom Potts, we were lucky to get a behind the scenes look at home gaelic games are maintained at one of the countries most modern facilities. So modern, in fact, that other athletic organizations like the Irish International Rugby team, took notice.

Cork is Ireland’s third largest city, and is the capital of the largest county by land area. Almost three hours south of Dublin, Cork is certainly a warmer place with palm trees bizarrely gracing some of its boulevards.

Cork is almost home to a proud sailing tradition, which dates from the city’s prestige as a seaport for over 500 years, and its strategic protected harbor on the south of Ireland. The Royal British Navy was long stationed in Crosshaven, Co. Cork and only withdrew from the harbor twenty years after the Irish won their independence. The reason? Provisions in the Anglo-Irish peace treaty included the rights to preserve naval positions in Cork.

But where does the Rebel nickname of Cork come from? And why are Nemo Rangers called Nemo? The answers are inside this 6th broadcast from Ireland.

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Iced Chocolate, Digestives & Tea: A Sweet Tooth’s Ireland

In Culture, Reflections on July 10, 2010 at 3:28 pm

Colleen eagerly awaits her Iced Chocolate

I’ve been pretty chipper throughout this project — one large reason why is that I’ve had access to massive amounts of chocolate. I believe I inherited this deep and never-ending craving for chocolate from my mother, who also loves Ireland and keeps a constant stock of dark chocolate in a cabinet in our laundry room.

Ireland has many habits, stores, and cafes to fit the chocoholic’s fancies. For one, their daily “cuppa tea” time is never without biscuits and digestives — two mysteriously healthy terms for basically chocolate cookies or Kit Kat bars. The digestifs are suited for dipping in tea, but Zack and I have gotten in the habit of buying logs of these cookies and snacking on them throughout the day.

But the real joys of chocolate access happen in these delicious cafes that abound in Dublin, called Butler’s Chocolate Cafes. Butler’s is chocolate heaven: an inviting gold and glass decor with glittering gold-wrapped truffles sells a variety of coffees, drinks, and freshly made chocolates. They have the standard cafe fare, like cappuccinos and cafe mochas, but some new favorites which have blown my chocolate addicted mind. The most ambitious being the hot cookie chocolate, an iced mocha with bits of oreos thrown in for good measure.

But the best kept secret was the “iced chocolate”, and is just what you expect: smooth creamy chocolate melted down and mixed with milk, but served chilled and icy. Why has this not been invented in the US?! Why are we so satisfied with the “hot” chocolate? I am indignant. And desperate to start my own chain of Butler’s in the US, which I am certain will spread like chocolate, procreating bunnies.

The first time I went into a Butler’s I ordered an “iced chocolate”. I handed over the 3 euro to the cashier, who handed me back a small gold-wrapped truffle. “It’s complimentary: to go with your drink.” she said.

Oh, how kind of you! Yes, one dose of chocolate in the form of creamy delicious drinkability isn’t enough. I needed a milk chocolate truffle, the espresso shot of candies, to complete the experience. Thank you, Ireland, for knowing exactly how to charm me and my taste buds.

As if the iced chocolate wasn’t delicious and creamy and freshly made enough, the truffle melted into a gooey center like only straight-from-the-chocolate-shop candies can be. Truffles stored in boxes or cabinets in laundry rooms for a few weeks, or even a few days, become hard and loose their sparkle. They’re still delicious. But why should we settle for less?

-CB

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