A letter which appeared in yesterday's Irish Times has revived the debate over whether a hurling stick should be called a hurl or a hurley.

Cork native Ned Monaghan, who now lives in Connecticut, is in no doubt that it should be called the latter.

He wrote: "I was born and reared in Co Cork and when we went out to play, after school and before the tea, we went hurling. And we used our hurleys to do that.

"Yet we will all be familiar, I assume, with the words of the song Bould Thady Quill, who as I remember, “Hurled the ball right and left in their faces."

"To do that, he used a hurley, not a hurl. Hurl is a verb, not a noun. I just read a fine article in this paper about a fine man who, they said, made hurls. He did not. He made hurleys.

"This is finally off my chest. I truly hope that I will never again see hurleys called hurls. If this trend continues donkeys will be soon be called donks."

So now you know!

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