I think I'm gonna hurl

We are coming up to one of the most important events on the Irish calendar. The All Ireland Gaelic Games Athletic (GAA) league Championship. One of the aspects of Irish culture which I have easily taken too is the adoption of the native sports. Ireland not only has its own language, it has its own national sports. These sports predate anything that we are used to seeing, and it predates them by a lot. This is off the official Gaelic Games web site.

Hurling is a game similar to hockey, in that it is played with a small ball and a curved wooden stick. It is Europe's oldest field game. When the Celts came to Ireland as the last ice age was receding, they brought with them a unique culture, their own language, music, script and unique pastimes. One of these pastimes was a game now called hurling. It features in Irish folklore to illustrate the deeds of heroic mystical figures and it is chronicled as a distinct Irish pastime for at least 2,000 years.

We are talking just post ice age - and they aren't kidding about the mythology stuff. The big Irish hero - the Achilles of Ireland, a guy named Cuchalainn, was a great hurler.

Hurling (Iománaíocht in the Gaelic) is the fastest field sport in the world. It is second in speed only to ice hockey which, of course, is faster because of said ice! Go figure. When you watch hurling, you can't see the sliotar (slither) because it moves so fast. Most men that play this game do not wear helmets due to a grandfather law making helmet wearing optional. You usually see them coming off the field looking like confederate soldier extras from Gone with the Wind, complete with the bloodied head wrap.

Gaelic football is a cross between soccer and rugby yet pre-dates both these sports. It is the genesis of Australian rules football and is a great game in and of itself with no stupid rules like you can't use your hands! Certain counties are considered "football" or "hurling" counties - usually the ones with less rock are hurling because there were less stones for the sliotar to bounce off of but some counties, like my adopted Cork, are good in both.

The history of the game post-mythology is awe-inspiring as well. Croke park in Dublin is an 80,000 person stadium built entirely of donated money. All players who play in the league are not professional and do not get endorsement money. They all have day jobs and do it for the love of the game! Back in 1920's and the days of Michael Collins, the English shot and killed football players when they stormed Croke park during an all Ireland final in Croke park. Each section of the stadium is named after the men who were shot. The day from then on was called Bloody Sunday. (This Bloody Sunday is not to be confused with the Bloody Sunday in which peaceful human rights demonstrators were shot by the British army in Derry in 1972) It was not until this year that any other game other than an Irish game was allowed to be played in Croke park - and the decision was hugely contested. There also is a rule that a member of the British Army, past or present, can not gain entrance into the park.

During the late summer and up until the all Ireland, we really see that this island is still a collection of clans, loosely connected by the fact that no one else is remotely like these people. Sure, they are technically "Irish" but they are province and county first. Think Yankees versus Red Sox but multiply it by the fact that these families have been in these places for thousands of years - since they were wearing animal skins and wondering at the power of fire!

I like my sports with a healthy dose of history.

"Up Cork, Up the Rebels!" Erin Go Bragh!