In Scotland's Badenoch, Strathspey, Lochaber and parts of Argyll, camanachd or iomain (known in English and Scots as shinty) is a sport which is essentially the same root as hurling. It used to be played all over Scotland - it was played down near Selkirk right on the border with England in Walter Scott's day and was played in Fife too. Apparently hurling in Ulster shared many features of the game of shinty/camanachd. But after the GAA was formed hurling and shinty/camanachd drifted apart. Like Gaidhlig and Gaeilge.
For the life of me I can't figure out why hurling isn't more popular. AFAIC the only entertaining sport we have here in the USA is hockey and even that is sporadically popular by region.
Odd that the most exciting sports (hurling in Ireland, ice-hockey in the USA) are the less popular. Canada seems to be an exception: hockey is doing well there, by all accounts.
I like both Ice Hockey and Hurling and I'm from California. The USA is more focused on the money sports Basketball and American Football. They by far are fuled and run by big money, I will say there are probably Baskeball players that make more in a year then an entire Hurling team.
whateverfits hurling teams earn nothing at all they are amateurs by choice the money they earn is from their jobs,but the governing body GAA makes 100million a year thats not just from hurling its from gaelic football as well so probably they are baseball players who earn more than the GAA do/.In fact some soccer players are sold for 100million.The crowds are big but tv money and sponsorship are low for example the GAA signed afive year 50million deal with sky sports .Sky sports pay 10million for every premier league game they broadcast basically because hurling and gaelic football are the major sports of a small nation whereas soccer is the top sport in world terms and the EPL is the best league in that sport
irishlongsword boland Why hasn't the GAA there own dedicated channel dedicated to hurling,football and handball. Handball being are national game it gets virtually no coverage on RTÉ. An attempt was made to promote hurling in my own club, every Wednesday evening and Saturday morning in the summer the youngsters were taught the basics of hurling. An official came over from the club house one Saturday morning and asked the coach and youngsters if they wanted to play hurling to move to a club that played hurling. Reading between the lines the youngsters felt they weren't welcome. And yet when Sean Kelly visited the club officials ensured the youngsters and coach would be present to show the club was promoting the game,Kelly was president of the GAA at the time.
Well i mean with handball basically you can't get 80 000 around a handball alley for the same reason the GAA ditched athletics and cycling which was originally there main focus .In the 80s you had a tv format handball game called top ace with the best handball players competing in a 40minute game.Paul brady who won 5 world titles has virtually no profile and DJ carie is also a world champion ,but his profile is a result of hurling not handball at all,he was a briliant hurler but he should get the same for is hurling.Once RTE ditched sports stadium coverage of minority sports completely ended.Having a three hour slot meant they had to fill it now they don't have to do that anymore.When TG4 began they have hived what was left onto them.TG4 do a good job but being realistic about it vast majority don't understand or watch it saying that they do get a good audience for popular events like league final.but sports like handball are lost there.Handball just isn't sexy enough for RTE or the GAA who wanted to remove handball from crokepark,but the handball council stood its ground.The handball council is actually doing a good job they ran a good world championship,but they are really getting no support from the GAA. As regards hurling not surprised about the lipservice and tokenism it recieves.What hurling needs is merging of the weaker counties .Counties with 5 clubs are never going to win the christy ring never mind liam Mccarthy what you need is merging of weaker counties.That will do too things give players an opportunity to play at a higher level and give hurling fans a team to support.For example north of galway rugby is not that popular ,but rugby fans have a team to get behind connacht.People in mayo roscommon leitrim sligo would like to see galway win in the hurling,but really its not there team a north connacht team would do that.I know its not simple and it would take years to set up ,but that is the only way you can promote hurling in the weaker counties,
Very informative. Strong base explaining History, teams, levels, building a stick, and how to sustaine this epic game for centuries to come. Great for a newcomer who doesn’t have any knowledge. Wish I would have saw this when I was first getting into hurling!
All counties bordering the home of hurling, Tipperary, play the game. There are pockets in a few others as well, but proximity to Tipperary is the main factor.
You don't happen to have the rest of this series, do you? I have the 1st chapter, and this. The football episode and episode about clubs are nowhere around anymore!
There is zero evidence, based on the entire history of the Franco Normans in France or Ireland, that thus culture produced a "stick" game. It is entirely possible, post demise of Gaelic Ireland in the mid- 16th century, that the surviving Franco Norman families (by then heavily infused with the Gaelic aristocracy) embraced this stick game called hurling. This "stick" game we called hurling formed a significant part of the sporting culture of Gaelic Ireland dating to legends of Setanta and the hound of Chulainn. No doubt the Franco and Anglo Saxon planter classes in Ireland in the 17th and 18th centuries needed entertainment to help rise above their boring lives on plundered land and walled estates. No doubt either, they felt threatened by a growing indigenous population of athletic men wielding sticks on the playing fields, changing to swords, pikes and guns in periods of revolution in those same centuries. Moreover, the famine decimated whatever sporting structures had existed for hurling across the length and breadth of Ireland. Many of the "historians" featured in this documentary are average at best. And that's using "average" in its most generous fashion.
Caoimhin Davoren The 1923 hurling final between Galway and Limerick was the first field game ever to be broadcast live on radio. The final was broadcast by 2RN (now RTÉ) situated at the GPO.
Unfortunately the Westerners like us in Galway won't fit in with the lads over in the south or east, Galway and Antrim would be the exiles of Irish hurling counties I suppose Although to be fair Galway have just as rich a football history just like the rest of Connacht does
They might move faster ,but in hurling its the ball that determines speed not the players.A hockey rink is 60m by 30 whereas a hurling field is 140m by 90m yet a goalkeeper can hit the ball 100m from his goal square and a score arising from that just 5secs.It is about equal really,The puck does not go out of bounds which makes hockey more continuous.Its very difficult really to compare the two,but the fact that the ball in hurling travels so far and so quick and also no player can be allowed possession because you can score everywhere on the pitch makes the games more or less equal.
