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Irish But Never Held A Hurl?

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Replying To Gavvygavgav: "Was always a hurl for us too." Probably being g a bit Pedantic but I also don't like a 'Hurley being called a 'Hurl'! For me you 'Hurl' with a 'Hurley. That said and to totally contradict being pedantic. We would often call the game 'Hurley instead of 'Hurling lol Its probably a regional thing and being coarse Country Folk and not speaking PC in our case. Some games of 'Hurley at the weekend Sir! InishowenMan (Donegal) - Posts: 216 - 01/08/2018 13:09:27 2128214 Link
There are 8 or 9 counties that play hurling the rest think they are playing it but it's not really the same game, hurling takes great skill to do it in a way that entertains spectators. I've probably been to more Wexford Kilkenny or Waterford games over the years than to Carlow hurling games, low level hurling is really bad and I know I played low level as a youngster and I can only imagine how bad it is watching players struggle with the basic skills. It is a great game though but only when played at its best, I find I can get enjoyment out of low standard football much more so than with hurling. It won't change either the same counties who are bad today will be bad in 20 years time Barrowsider (Carlow) - Posts: 1711 - 01/08/2018 13:29:18 2128224 Link
A link to the game of hurling that was 'horrendous, and brought down the fantastic day that it had been' of a gaelic football match. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPZS1lpMiDs BliainanÁir (Laois) - Posts: 598 - 01/08/2018 14:11:50 2128241 Link
Replying To Barrowsider: "There are 8 or 9 counties that play hurling the rest think they are playing it but it's not really the same game, hurling takes great skill to do it in a way that entertains spectators. I've probably been to more Wexford Kilkenny or Waterford games over the years than to Carlow hurling games, low level hurling is really bad and I know I played low level as a youngster and I can only imagine how bad it is watching players struggle with the basic skills. It is a great game though but only when played at its best, I find I can get enjoyment out of low standard football much more so than with hurling. It won't change either the same counties who are bad today will be bad in 20 years time" First of all the same can be said for football. There are 5 Or 6 at the top level and you could put the rest in similar group numbers all the way down. The league is actually a reasonable assessment of intercounty football. The majority of counties are very much in denial regarding their standing within the game. You may argue that the gap is closer but is it really? Negative tactics and the physical inability to kick a score from outside the perimeter just keeps the margin down. Secondly, as a Limerick man living in Roscommon I have to say that I quite enjoy watch both intercounty and club hurling here. There are a lot of good players and some very competitive fixtures. I would not agree that it's bad. I've seen Roscommon play Leitrim and Sligo in championship football and that can be very bad. I've seen carlow play and westmeath and I wouldn't consider what they produce to be bad. I think you are being very disingenuous to your own county and others. Tadhgmacda (Limerick) - Posts: 99 - 01/08/2018 15:00:18 2128268 Link
Replying To Barrowsider: "There are 8 or 9 counties that play hurling the rest think they are playing it but it's not really the same game, hurling takes great skill to do it in a way that entertains spectators. I've probably been to more Wexford Kilkenny or Waterford games over the years than to Carlow hurling games, low level hurling is really bad and I know I played low level as a youngster and I can only imagine how bad it is watching players struggle with the basic skills. It is a great game though but only when played at its best, I find I can get enjoyment out of low standard football much more so than with hurling. It won't change either the same counties who are bad today will be bad in 20 years time" Well you haven't much choice when it comes to getting enjoyment out of low standard football; there's been a scarcity of high standard football in recent years. Cockney_Cat (UK) - Posts: 2792 - 01/08/2018 18:00:43 2128329 Link
Replying To royaldunne: "Do not dare say anything about my family unless u say it to my face. Which of course u wouldn't, or if u did, trust me u would need a Hurley and it wouldn't do u any good. It's a c#ap game enjoyed by hombres for the most part who give it a bad name and who don't get out much." Pistols at dawn? I think you have a lot of growing left in you arock (Dublin) - Posts: 4954 - 01/08/2018 18:08:41 2128331 Link
Replying To liam500: "I train an u10 team in a non hurling county. There is one young lad on our team who has all the skills and utterly dominates every match we play. He also collects the cul cards and knows all the players names on the big inter county teams. It really saddens me that his future is limited because of where he lives. In soccer or rugby the sky would be the limit but not in the GAA. Any suggestions on what this lad could do?" Liam, don't spout nonsense as if Wicklow are st the bottom of the pile hurling wise!!! There is a fair standard of hurling within the county. Glenealy Lost the Leinster Intermediate Final in Nowlan Park to Ballyragget to an injury time point!!! Our county side lost the Christy Ring Cup Semi Final... Bray Emmett's have an underage structure the envy of many clubs around the country. We have some great hurling talent. We have a centre of excellence. Lift your head up man. More kids play hurling in Wicklow than did 20 years ago. Bray, a soccer town has massive hurling roots embedded now. There's amazing work going on in Greystones, a rugby town! Then we have our traditional clubs Carnew and Glenealy. Kiltegan in the west are having a good year. Avondale will hopefully be better off for their return to Intermediate ranks. Wicklow Town has hurling in it too. Chin up. Wicklowman (Wicklow) - Posts: 1142 - 01/08/2018 19:17:13 2128350 Link
When I was growing up in north-west Donegal, you couldn't buy a hurley or a sliotar even if you wanted to. Our uncle, from England, brought us over a cricket set once, and my brother and I would use the cricket stumps as hurleys, and tennis balls as sliotars. The first hurley we ever had was one my brother found abandoned in the long grass near a pitch down the county. I don't think any of the sports shops in the county even carried hurleys until after the year 2000. The only hurling matches I've ever seen in Ireland were the ones at University of Limerick when I was studying there - usually challenge matches before the Fitzgibbon started. Never been to a proper county or club game at home. There was never any hurling or rugby anywhere near us. It was all just soccer and gaelic football, and some of the secondary schools had a bit of basketball, but that was it. Texas (Donegal) - Posts: 163 - 01/08/2018 21:50:36 2128374 Link
Replying To royaldunne: "Do not dare say anything about my family unless u say it to my face. Which of course u wouldn't, or if u did, trust me u would need a Hurley and it wouldn't do u any good. It's a c#ap game enjoyed by hombres for the most part who give it a bad name and who don't get out much." It's a c#ap game enjoyed by hombres for the most part who give it a bad name and who don't get out much." I've had comments far less offensive then this, in fact some not offensive at all removed/deleted on here; but this s#ite is allowed? Cockney_Cat (UK) - Posts: 2792 - 01/08/2018 22:52:45 2128383 Link
Replying To Gavvygavgav: "Was always a hurl for us too." "Hurl" in Kilkenny too, never "hurley"...must be a Leinster/Munster thing again, we can't even agree on the name of the stick. Side note, where I come from in Kilkenny, we almost never refer to the balls as "sliotars", they're always "hurling balls"......and it sounds normal to me but seeing it written down, it must look weird to anyone in sliotar-land. ballydalane (Kilkenny) - Posts: 1256 - 02/08/2018 05:21:29 2128400 Link
Replying To Wicklowman: "Liam, don't spout nonsense as if Wicklow are st the bottom of the pile hurling wise!!! There is a fair standard of hurling within the county. Glenealy Lost the Leinster Intermediate Final in Nowlan Park to Ballyragget to an injury time point!!! Our county side lost the Christy Ring Cup Semi Final... Bray Emmett's have an underage structure the envy of many clubs around the country. We have some great hurling talent. We have a centre of excellence. Lift your head up man. More kids play hurling in Wicklow than did 20 years ago. Bray, a soccer town has massive hurling roots embedded now. There's amazing work going on in Greystones, a rugby town! Then we have our traditional clubs Carnew and Glenealy. Kiltegan in the west are having a good year. Avondale will hopefully be better off for their return to Intermediate ranks. Wicklow Town has hurling in it too. Chin up." Dont want to derail this thread but yes, agree with all your points. If Avondale win the intermediate then we are back to 7 senior clubs. Arklow and Kilcoole are also going well at intermediate and one of them should go up in the next few years too. I think 8 senior clubs is where we need to be at to have any chance of a title at national level. One thing that has happened in Wicklow and I'm not sure if it is also happening in other counties is the demise of the Junior club. We used to have lots of Junior only clubs (e.g. Kilmac, Avoca, Newcastle etc) but they have all stopped now. Junior level seems to be for 2nd/3rd teams of senior clubs now. I'm not sure if thats a bad or good thing! liam500 (Wicklow) - Posts: 203 - 02/08/2018 10:41:34 2128422 Link
Replying To Texas: "When I was growing up in north-west Donegal, you couldn't buy a hurley or a sliotar even if you wanted to. Our uncle, from England, brought us over a cricket set once, and my brother and I would use the cricket stumps as hurleys, and tennis balls as sliotars. The first hurley we ever had was one my brother found abandoned in the long grass near a pitch down the county. I don't think any of the sports shops in the county even carried hurleys until after the year 2000. The only hurling matches I've ever seen in Ireland were the ones at University of Limerick when I was studying there - usually challenge matches before the Fitzgibbon started. Never been to a proper county or club game at home. There was never any hurling or rugby anywhere near us. It was all just soccer and gaelic football, and some of the secondary schools had a bit of basketball, but that was it." Donegal hurling is on the up. It's very well organised and improving at county level all the time. They seem to have a full program of games for all the participating clubs. A lot of counties should look at what Donegal have done for inspiration. Tadhgmacda (Limerick) - Posts: 99 - 02/08/2018 12:38:19 2128457 Link
With Louth wee are footballing county and every county that borders us is also a footballing county. There are only five hurling clubs in the county. There are no hurling clubs in Drogheda or Ardee. Football is first for me but I just love watching the hurling and it has been a joy to watch this year. Plus the greatest hurler of all time came from the Wonderful Wee County: Cuchalainn. OLLIE (Louth) - Posts: 12224 - 02/08/2018 18:21:17 2128561 Link
Replying To InishowenMan: "You only have to look at a thread on the Donegal page that I commented on the same weekend of the Ulster Final to see what the general interest is in this County. Donegal played Warwickshire the day before in Croker in the Nicky Rackard final and won in a entertaining game. Was it it to the standard of the Liam Mccarthy County's? No! however there was some great hurling and one Donegal player 'Cut' 4 sideline balls over the bar and probably a record for a game of Hurling in Croker Park. The place was basically empty and nearly as many over from England as from Donegal. Thankfully there is pockets in this County that Hurling is in the blood and and although an avid follower of the 'Big Ball' Hurling is my first love as it is for many others. It is up to Clubs to promote both codes instead of one or the other and give the Kids and equal opportunity to try both instead of drumming the one into them. We are the 2nd largest County in Ireland and I see no reason why we Can't be like the biggest County and have Strong teams in both codes. After the weekends Games and the Documentary tonight maybe someone will take the Bull by the Horns and get involved in the game and promote it in schools and clubs. Once kids get the knack of it they love it!" Donegal is the fourth largest county in Ireland after Cork, Galway and Mayo. OLLIE (Louth) - Posts: 12224 - 02/08/2018 18:30:16 2128564 Link
Both hurling and football are brilliant sports. Football people need to stop running football down so much and hurling people need to calm down on the "greatest sport in the world" hyperbole. You'd have to laugh though at the people who think that hurling is just a case of "lash it up the park". They always preface it by saying that they don't really care about hurling! So you don't care about the sport but have managed to decipher exactly how it works. It's not just the sliotar flying over these lads heads I think. As for the hurl/hurley thing. Both are correct. Just depends where you're from. It's always been a hurl for me. Tends to be a hurley in Munster I think. MesAmis (Dublin) - Posts: 13802 - 02/08/2018 18:48:57 2128570 Link
Replying To MesAmis: "Both hurling and football are brilliant sports. Football people need to stop running football down so much and hurling people need to calm down on the "greatest sport in the world" hyperbole. You'd have to laugh though at the people who think that hurling is just a case of "lash it up the park". They always preface it by saying that they don't really care about hurling! So you don't care about the sport but have managed to decipher exactly how it works. It's not just the sliotar flying over these lads heads I think. As for the hurl/hurley thing. Both are correct. Just depends where you're from. It's always been a hurl for me. Tends to be a hurley in Munster I think." Good post Damothedub (Dublin) - Posts: 5193 - 02/08/2018 22:35:29 2128630 Link
Replying To OLLIE: "Donegal is the fourth largest county in Ireland after Cork, Galway and Mayo." There you go! Every days a school day as they say. For some reason or another I always thought we came after Cork in area size. InishowenMan (Donegal) - Posts: 216 - 02/08/2018 22:49:53 2128634 Link
Replying To InishowenMan: "There you go! Every days a school day as they say. For some reason or another I always thought we came after Cork in area size." Just in case you were ever on a quiz team and that question came up what is the second largest county in Ireland? I think Donegal has the second longest coastline in Ireland after Mayo. OLLIE (Louth) - Posts: 12224 - 03/08/2018 14:57:16 2128757 Link
Replying To OLLIE: "Just in case you were ever on a quiz team and that question came up what is the second largest county in Ireland? I think Donegal has the second longest coastline in Ireland after Mayo." Yeah thanks for that, I'm always open to correction or for learning something new. Ref- The Hurley/Hurl debate I also agree it's a regional thing and I suppose people can call it what they want. However Camàn translates to Hurley not Hurl. InishowenMan (Donegal) - Posts: 216 - 03/08/2018 15:20:37 2128762 Link
Replying To OLLIE: "With Louth wee are footballing county and every county that borders us is also a footballing county. There are only five hurling clubs in the county. There are no hurling clubs in Drogheda or Ardee. Football is first for me but I just love watching the hurling and it has been a joy to watch this year. Plus the greatest hurler of all time came from the Wonderful Wee County: Cuchalainn." Now come on Ollie we all know cuchalainn was really a Meath man. Sure Isn't his coaster even in Meath :) royaldunne (Meath) - Posts: 19449 - 03/08/2018 18:29:59 2128802 Link