In praise of Hurling

Hurling? Yes. And not “Curling” either. Hurling is the game closest to the ancestral soul of Ireland, much more so than Gaelic Football, far more so than rugby or soccer.

The earliest record of a Hurling match dates from a battle between Celtic tribes of Ireland in 1272 BC and the game weaves through several ancient legends.

As the legends indicate the game was a practice, prelude or substitute for war and in this its origin is similar to Lacrosse, perhaps the sport most similar in skill and style to Hurling, which the Native Americans of Canada called “little war”.

Hurling is closely related to the Highland Scots’ sport of Shinty. In recent times (precipitated by the AFL-GAA International Rules series) Ireland and Scotland have played a series of Shinty-Hurling hybrid Tests. There is a popular women’s version of it too called Camogie.

But why praise this most ancient of team sports? Well, have you seen it or seen it live at the elite county level in Ireland?

I have, several times, and I must say was blown away by the skill, speed and spectacle.

Picture: the “sliotar” (ball similar to a baseball) struck with sweet timing, like a master golfer’s fairway drive, by a centre-half-back, “over the bar” from more than 100 metres out.

A hit via a backhand “over the bar” by a player spinning and back turning onto his knees at the left-half-forward sideline, having just wrong-footed 3 defenders with a prior midfield dummy

Or the silotar carried on the end of the axe-like “hurley” in a 70 metre dodging sprint down the wing; blocked three times within 15 seconds by a gymnastically diving goal-keeper with his marginally wider hurley until a fourth blistering shot moments later slams past into the goal netting.

If you love sport, these things simply set one’s heart racing and leave one’s head shaking in awe. Though similar to Lacrosse, the large open field and the open blade of the hurley rather than the net of a Lacrosse stick, makes for a faster bigger spectacle.

Perhaps the closest thing is not a real life sport, but the game played at Hogwarts’ – “Quidditch”, with the “snitch” as the “sliotar”.

It is certainly, as the producer of this YouTube video would have it, the “fastest game on grass”:

It is a sport for the brave and the committed and in Ireland they say it is character building in a way the other sports just cannot be.

Despite the YouTube video producer’s enthusiasm for the game in America, it is unlikely to ever “take off” anywhere else but Ireland. To be an elite Hurler one has to practice and play from very junior primary level, the skills and reflexes are simply too difficult to master later.

If Folau and Hunt are struggling in the AFL, any athlete from any code could simply not cross at adult level to elite Hurling.

Some say it is a sport for the foolhardy rather than the brave – but Hurling has a strong amateur tradition of fair play and the ingrained reflexes and skill mean serious injuries are less common than in Gaelic Football, rugby or even soccer.

Yet Hurling has struggled in recent decades to compete with the international pull of rugby and soccer and the Ireland wide popularity of Gaelic Football.

Despite its spectacle and tradition, part of its problem has the few heartland counties that have come to dominate the inter-county League and summer Championship: Kilkenny, daylight, more daylight and then Cork and Tipperary, followed further back by Clare, Waterford and Galway. Few other counties have any Hurling silverware in their trophy cabinets.

But all this may change today, Sunday 1st May 2011, when Dublin take on the mighty Kilkenny in the Div 1 League final. Kilkenny have literally dozens of Div 1 League titles and summer Championship cups in what must be hallways full of trophy cabinets.

Dublin last won a Hurling Div 1 League final in 1939.

The capital of Ireland looks out towards Britain, Europe and the world as much if not more than in towards the green rocky fields of rural Ireland. English Premier League gossip, Rugby test matches, soccer internationals, and in summer the Dublin Gaelic Football team in the All-Ireland Championships is what holds the Dublin sporting mind.

But years of grass roots work in the Irish capital, raising a new generation of young Dubliners to play the game of Celtic myth and legend, seems to be paying dividends.

First getting the county into Div 1 of the Hurling League and now to a final.

A victory to Dublin today, followed by a good showing in this summer’s Championship would be sweet rejuvenation for this oldest, yet fastest, most skilful and praiseworthy team sport.

Hurling – a fully amateur game played for pride and honour. If you are a sports lover – and as a reader of The Roar you must be – and you are going to make use of your strong Aussie dollars in post-GFC Ireland this northern summer – simply do not miss the chance to see the 3 millenia old wonder that is Hurling whilst you’re there.