heritageatplay

Posts Tagged ‘Gaelic Football’

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The Heritage at Play Collection

In Collection, Culture, Reflections on September 4, 2010 at 7:17 pm

In the course of our three weeks in Ireland, we collected a number of flags, scarves, programs, and of course, gaelic games sporting equipment to bring home and share with our American friends. With any luck, we will soon formally display this items at an exhibition accompanying the premiere screening of “Playing Irish.” In the meantime, take a look at some of things we brought back with us from Ireland, including the hurls, jerseys, and gaelic football we used/played with in our Broadcasts from Dublin.

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The Beginner’s Guide to the All-Ireland [Part I]

In Culture, Games, News on August 20, 2010 at 10:12 pm

It’s mid August now, and the Heritage at Play team is tragically far from Dublin, the GAA, and the excitement of the impending All-Ireland Finals in hurling and football. In Newport, Rhode Island, where I have been working over the past few weeks, a small but vocal contingent of Irish summer residents have pushed at least one bar (The Fastnet on Broadway) to televise the penultimate games of the All-Ireland bracket. In Boston, where Colleen is busy with work there are many more places to go, including any number of Irish pubs in South Boston where GAA activity is among the highest in the United States.

But what’s it all mean? What is the All-Ireland? How does it work? Who competes for it? And why should anyone (least of all a baseball/pre-season football addled American) tune it to care? The answers are a part of this week’s Beginner’s Guide to the All-Ireland, brought to you a full four weeks since the Heritage at Play team left the site of the action.

Everything Starts at the Club

As our broadcasts have highlighted, the Gaelic Athletic Association closely mimics the model of the Catholic church in Ireland. Small villages and parishes of larger towns are represented by community clubs that may compete in hurling, gaelic football, or both. Take St. Rynagh’s that we visited in Co. Offaly as an example of a football only club, or Nemo Rangers that we visited in Co. Cork as an example of a dual sport club. Each of these clubs competes against all of the other clubs in their county to win the county championship. As Tom Potts of Nemo Rangers told us “the county title is the prize that everyone is after.” Every county club champion will have the opportunity to compete against the other 31 county champions to be the champions of the entire island of Ireland. But this is not the All-Ireland proper, this is just the All-Ireland Club Championship (which our friend Ross O’Carroll won last year in football).

From Club to County

While clubs within a county compete against each other, a county board makes selections from across the clubs in their purview to create a all-star county team (or in the idiom of the Irish, a top-flight county panel). This All-County squad will hold practices with players who are used to competing with each other, but now must come together in the name of county pride. The clubs may proud, but being a part of the county team is very special honor as the player will be celebrated throughout the county as a top-talent.

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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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Back from Offaly :: St. Rynagh’s Club and Cloghan Development

In Travel on July 3, 2010 at 6:19 pm

St. Rynagh's Club in Cloghan, County Offaly

A great sigh of relief and yip yip HOORRAYYY! We are back from the faithful county, faithful to cows and “full irish” breakfasts and gaelic games and old ruins, but not so faithful to the Internet. We were able to tweet a little from our trusty O2 phone, probably the best purchase of the trip thus far, but apologize for our lag in posts and videos. We’ve got a few in the arsenal, and once the strong and sturdy Internet cafe opens up tomorrow, rest assured you will have plenty to entertain yourself!

A great shoutout of thanks to Ray Bell and the St. Rynagh’s Club of Cloghan, County Offaly, for hosting us in sports and providing endless entertainment in interviews and bar banter, and a cheer for tremendous hospitality to Carmel and Padraig Finneran for hosting us at The Gables Bed & Breakfast for the past 2 nights ( if your headed through the Midlands, why not stay here! We have a bellyful of ‘rashers’ and delicious tea and biscuits to prove it was well worth the trip. Our hearts are in our bellies, what can we say?)

It was good to stretch our legs in the countryside, but I don’t think we realized how rural it was going to be! We had a hard time wrapping our heads around the fact that the town of Cloghan consisted of 1 roundabout, two pubs, a corner bistro, a SPAR (like a Wawa, but not nearly as delicious) and a park that used to be a Protestant Church, but was abandoned.

Arriving in Tullamore, Ray picked us up and drove us to The Gables, where we discovered very quickly that there was no Internet, but better water pressure than our little cottage in Rathmines. Our first evening in Cloghan was the unveiling celebration of a lighted walkway and wall renovation of the St. Rynagh’s Club…the first stage in their new development. Members of the Irish Heart Association, Offaly and Cloghan officials and Irish Olympian marathoner Pauline Curley were in attendance to open a 1kilometer pathway around the pitch that winds past the central Church and town, and back down the main road to the pitch entrance. The path is lighted and covered by CCTV cameras; the goal of the development was to encourage the community members to use the path for exercise.

Amidst celebratory food and drink, the pitch was covered with the younger athletes of the club practicing their game. It was delightful to watch the younger kids at the sport, and we got a chance to interview some of the coaches, administrators, and athletes at the club. Look for their interviews in the video, to be posted soon!

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