heritageatplay

Posts Tagged ‘hurling’

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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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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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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 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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The Broadcast from Dublin #4

In Broadcasts, Competitions, Games on July 8, 2010 at 2:53 pm

(Click on the video link to see it in fullscreen!)

Heritage at Play documentary duo Zack McCune and Colleen Brogan returned to Croke Park to see another side of major GAA athletics. Hurling is an iconic Irish activity, with a unique wooden stick called a hurl used to hit around a sliotar (pronounced ‘slither’) on the same pitch as gaelic football. We were fortunate to see Kilkenny play, as they battled Galway for the Leinster Province Senior Hurling title. Kilkenny is by all reports the most dominant and powerful hurling side in Ireland. If they win the All-Ireland this year, it will be for a record 5th time in a row.

At the end of the game we went to the GAA museum, which held fascinating film footage and objects from Croke Park and the GAA’s past. The presentation of materials there was incredibly suggestive. Objects from the War of Independence shared space with the sport’s recognizable trophies, and banners from all 32 counties reminded visitors that the GAA is an activity pursued across the entire island of Ireland, not just in the 26 county Republic of Ireland.

A demonstration on making hurls gave us a chance to see how the sticks are crafted. And, more importantly, Zack had a chance to be fitted to purchase his own!

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