With such talk of negativity regarding the decline or death of hurling in so many areas nationwide, does anyone know of any areas where hurling is on the up?

I personally have encountered an area of the country where up to 15 years ago there was little or no hurling played or where there was only a small tradition but was strongly on the down. The area I'm referring to is North East Wicklow.

In 1996, John Henderson, former Kilkenny full-back won a Wicklow senior championship medal with my club, Glenealy. Henderson played at full-forward that day and scored 1-2 assisting Glenealy in victory over Carnew. Henderson 'had' to play with Glenealy as there was no hurling club (at senior level) next or near Henderson's adopted town of Bray. 16 years on Henderson's son also John is wing back on the county senior team. Through Henderson's tireless coaching and sheer hard work Bray have come up through the ranks. He basically re-established hurling in Bray from youth level - competing in both Wicklow and Dublin underage leagues and championships in Wicklow. The fruits of his labours are to be seen today - Bray Emmetts are now an established Senior club in the county and Bray are reasonably dominant in most underage and minor leagues and championships. On Sunday last, Bray Emmetts won the Leinster Division 3 League Title in Dr Cullen Park in Carlow. This is phenomenal progress indeed.

The spin-off in North Wicklow has been like a domino effect. Hurling is now strong in Greystones - a traditional rugby, soccer and even cricket stronghold!! Eire Og Greystones are now an established intermediate hurling club not far off senior level. Smaller older clubs like Newcastle and Kilcoole are starting to get their act together. Now don't get me wrong this is still Wicklow hurling - I'm am not trying to say Wicklow will rattle established cages - but it's great to see a challenge for places on the county team and an eventual renaissance in our intermediate and senior championships. It can only be good for hurling - not good for my club though!!

From a time when the county side would NEVER get a county hurler from North Wicklow - we now have Stephen Kelly (Eire Og), Gino Fusciardi (Eire Og), Ronan Keddy (Kilcoole), John Henderson (Bray), Mikey Browne (Bray) and Christy Moorehouse (Bray) all playing Inter-County hurling over the past 2 seasons. This mixed with the traditional clubs like Glenealy and Carnew has seen Wicklow through to their 2nd Christy Ring Final in a row on June 9th in Croke Park. A lot of work has to be done at underage level still though - it was only 2-3 years ago that Wicklow were getting unmerciful hammerings at Leinster Minor Level. However, I feel the right people are in charge now to ensure that phase will not be repeated in the long-term. Just thought I'd share a bit of a good news story with other hurling enthusiasts.

I would be delighted if others have stories of hurling on the rise or having a renaissance in areas where once there was a tradition.

Wicklowman (Wicklow) - Posts: 1142 - 30/05/2012 21:34:02    1184120

Parts of Armagh were on the up the past few years and seemed to be making great progress but seem to have fallen away again. When Antrim actually starts could someone let me know?

Ulsterman (Antrim) - Posts: 9816 - 30/05/2012 21:45:08    1184129

Meath, Kildare, Louth and Westmeath are on the up. I think some of it has to do with hurling becoming so big in Dublin. It's spilling out into the surrounding counties. Hopefully in 20 years time Meath, Kildare, Louth and Wicklow will be putting up a proper challenge in the Leinster championship. Westmeath are in it bu don't really pose a threat as of yet.

BettystownRoyal (Meath) - Posts: 3353 - 30/05/2012 21:52:17    1184142

Dr Crokes in Killarney have made great strides in underage hurling in the last few years and now have teams up to under 16 having had no underage hurling before that! Daithi O'Regan former Clare player (i think) started underage hurling in Duagh just outside of Listowel and they had there first seinor team a few years back and had a lad of the Kerry hurling panel this year

moomoo (Kerry) - Posts: 4023 - 30/05/2012 21:58:12    1184148

We used to spend the last few weeks of each August with family in Bray when I was younger. My da recounts a story of going on a wild goose chase with my uncle Sean Ward (may God rest him) looking for a hurl for me and being met with blank stares and incredulous looks. Glad things have changed for the better, and great to see Wicklow hurling going so well. Hopefully Down will get past London next weekend and we'll have a cracking Christy Ring final to look forward to.

portinexile (USA) - Posts: 21 - 30/05/2012 22:03:04    1184153

The problem is that Hurling success cannot be simply measured by County success, it often paints a false picture. Even if all 32 counties were pushing hurling hard you would still have counties with little success like in the football.

The true measure of success is the involvement at under-age. This is were it starts and it takes 15-20 years to see this bubble up.

Usually clubs have the kids of 6-8 out Saturday morning and what you need is one weekend football one weekend hurling and from here you build, the fact that hurling is made available will get more kids involved.

You need two things in my opinion i. a willingness from the clubs to do this (its not simply a County Board or Croke Park issue) and ii. people who have been trained up as coaches for these young kids. Can't simply give them a hurl and tell them off you go.

This is how it works in my club and a good example of how this can work is with the Camogie. Club was always dual but the Camogie section had really died off. When the girls started coming down for the Football they were also introduced into the Camogie every second weekend and are now fielding juvenile teams for the first time in years, though still no adult team as you have to wait till they move up the ranks.

So for me it starts from the bottom and from there you build, this is not top down.

witnof (Dublin) - Posts: 1604 - 31/05/2012 08:50:01    1184169

I had a hurling growth area for a while but the doctor prescribed me some cream and i made a full recovery.

Brolly (Monaghan) - Posts: 4472 - 31/05/2012 08:58:29    1184171

Your a smart*** Brolly and apologies to all for the comment by my fellow monaghan poster. Some areas in our county are mad into hurling, have a lot of juveniles out and best of luck to them and they not deserving of your sneering

carcracker (Monaghan) - Posts: 186 - 31/05/2012 10:00:44    1184211

Bray Emmets and Kilcoole play in the Dublin underage leagues and they certainly are growing and holding their own. In North county Dublin (Fingal) and in the crumbling Celtic Tiger shanty towns ringing Dublin.

arock (Dublin) - Posts: 4953 - 31/05/2012 10:06:04    1184217

Brolly, I was looking to hear from other hurling enthusiasts, not *****hawks like you.

Wicklowman (Wicklow) - Posts: 1142 - 31/05/2012 10:35:31    1184234

But lads are they hurling growth areas with or without county board support? Because if they are without CB support they will not survive let alone prosper, if they are with CB support they will thrive and hopefully prosper.
The biggest opposition to hurling in counties mentioned is the lack of respect from the county board for the game, this will only stifle the growth of the game beyond the traditional counties.
Carlow, for example, has massive support for hurling from its county board and is making progress.

Pinkie (Wexford) - Posts: 4100 - 31/05/2012 10:57:54    1184253

What the dubs have done with hurling is fantastic and their efforts should be used as a template throughout the less successful counties, hurling needs to be profiled and marketed more both in Ireland and abroad.

Tom1916 (Armagh) - Posts: 2001 - 31/05/2012 11:03:19    1184259

arock
County: Dublin
Posts: 736

1184217 Bray Emmets and Kilcoole play in the Dublin underage leagues and they certainly are growing and holding their own. In North county Dublin (Fingal) and in the crumbling Celtic Tiger shanty towns ringing Dublin.

Clondalkindub won't like that snide remark

dhorse (Laois) - Posts: 11374 - 31/05/2012 11:20:14    1184279

There were parts of Cork that traditionally had no hurling at all (there still is). However significant inroads have been made and now teams like Kilmicheal, Aghinagh and Iveleary have started up hurling. Hopefully this will spread further and other non-hurling clubs will make progress.

There are also areas like Newtownshandrum, Ballyhea, Dromina etc where there is no football or effectively none anyway (one of them might throw a team in for the championship once a year). Hopefully more will follow their lead.

bennybunny (Cork) - Posts: 3917 - 31/05/2012 11:26:35    1184285

Pinkie - you are right to question whether this was done with or without county board support. Well initially the answer is no - but men like Henderson have now pushed hurling so hard in North Wicklow that this area is now crucial to the development of hurling in Wicklow. North Wicklow has a massive population. Bray had 32,000 in the 2006 census. Greystones is listed as having in excess of 15,000. If you add in the general population of north Wicklow's other villages, (Kilcoole/Newcastle) it contains roughly half the population of our county in a very small land mass.

The county board can no longer ignore the growth of hurling here - so after many years of a wait and see approach they are supportive of the growth. A Development Task Force, the brainchild of Paudie Butler identified Wicklow/North Wexford as a hurling blackspot and hurling was definitely put to the fore. I work in North Wexford - there are most definitely clubs in Wicklow with more interest in hurling than some I have experienced in North Wexford. (Castletown/Kilanerin for example Vs Glenealy/Carnew.) As someone on here said - the growth of hurling in North Wicklow has much to do with the growth of hurling in Dublin. The interest is there now. Hurling has re-emerged at senior level in Wicklow Town. St. Patrick's are now a senior club again having disbanded about 5 years ago. Arklow Rocks Hurling Club are now a senior club again (albeit a poor one) after a decade and a half of neglect. I find it very interesting that hurling is now making such large inroads in the urban areas of our county and is largely on the down in some rural clubs such as Kiltegan in the west of the county - West Wicklow bar Kiltegan is a wasteland for hurling. Barndarrig, a rural club in the east are also in decline.

Throughout the 00's we only had 6 senior hurling clubs - now we have 1 Glenealy 2 Carnew 3 Avondale 4 St Patrick's 5 Kiltegan 6 Arklow Rocks 7 Bray Emmetts 8 Kilcoole - but there is definite potential for Eire Og, Greystones to make an 9 team championship.

Wicklowman (Wicklow) - Posts: 1142 - 31/05/2012 12:04:55    1184336

Has hurling progressed in Belfast much?

keeper7 (Longford) - Posts: 4088 - 31/05/2012 12:19:17    1184350

There was always a lot of hurling in Westmeath, its just that they have now improved their standards. Most of the improvment has been led by a few progressive clubs, some development squads work and improved secondary schools hurling.
There is still huge room for improvement in the county in terms of developing hurling in urban areas - Athlone, Mullingar, Kinnegad and Moate.

Then you have Roscommon, which has actually gone backwards in the last 15 years. Too few adult clubs, no proper development of new clubs, Connacht council not really bothered and a joke of a hurling board. compare them to Armagh.

And Longford, where the county board have actually done their best to kill off hurling within the county with no hurling coaching in schools, or schools hurling games, no support for county hurling team and preventing adult club games going ahead

valley84 (Westmeath) - Posts: 1903 - 31/05/2012 12:42:28    1184366

Wicklowman

My brother is involved with Bray in coaching.
I went along with him one saturday morning to see the coaching and it was great. between over 100 children all practicing the skill and in the right way.
The future looks good for that club

Southsham (Limerick) - Posts: 752 - 31/05/2012 13:24:58    1184410

Southsham - I know it's great - I only played against Bray Emmetts once in underage hurling - we beat them by a cricket score - essentially they didn't have a team - we are only a small village club (have 4 adult hurling teams all the same!!) Our underage teams were wiped by Bray in recent years due to the sheer number of players coming through there - but we have stemmed the tide on that score. The next problem for Bray is holding on to even a small number of them through to adulthood. But what it has done is keep our club on its toes and helped raise the standard of hurling - because if we (an established club) don't keep up - we will be eventually wiped by them in Senior hurling.

Wicklowman (Wicklow) - Posts: 1142 - 31/05/2012 15:16:44    1184586

Thats the plan they have is to bring through a sizeable number of those children.
I don't know about the facilities the other sports in Bray can offer but I was very impressed by Emmets.
That can only help retain these players.
Its great to see hurling doing well in non traditional parts.
I hate to see posts about the death of hurling and how it is in decline.

Southsham (Limerick) - Posts: 752 - 31/05/2012 15:38:31    1184618