Hurling (Irish: iománaíocht/iomáint) is an outdoor team game of ancient Gaelic and Irish origin, administered by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA). The game has prehistoric origins, and has been played for 3,000 years. One of Ireland’s native Gaelic games, it shares a number of features with Gaelic football, such as the field and goals, the number of players, and much terminology. There is a similar game for women called camogie (camógaíocht). It shares a common Gaelic root with the sport of shinty (camanachd), which is played predominantly in Scotland.
Founded in 1904, Camogie, an independent voluntary organisation, is the most popular female team sport in Ireland while making a significant contribution to the Irish culture, as part of the family of Gaelic games. Within the Gaelic Games family, Camogie is a natural extension of the men’s hurling community. The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), as the governing body for men’s Gaelic Games and as the community base of Gaelic Games, is of huge importance to Camogie, from club to national level.
The objective of the game is for players to use a wooden stick called a hurley (in Irish a camán, pronounced /ˈkæmən/ or /kəˈmɔːn/) to hit a small ball called a sliotar /ˈʃlɪtər/ between the opponents’ goalposts either over the crossbar for one point, or under the crossbar into a net guarded by a goalkeeper for one goal, which is equivalent to three points. The sliotar can be caught in the hand and carried for not more than four steps, struck in the air, or struck on the ground with the hurley.
It can be kicked, or slapped with an open hand (the hand pass) for short-range passing. A player who wants to carry the ball for more than four steps has to bounce or balance the sliotar on the end of the stick, and the ball can only be handled twice while in his possession.
There are many different skills involved in the game of hurling. These can be broadly broken down into those that involve:
- Gaining Possession
- Maintaining Possession
- Releasing Possession
- Contesting Possession
- other skills that facilitate the playing of Hurling
Skills: To learn more about the skills of Hurling review and download the Hurling Skill Cards
Provided that a player has at least one foot on the ground, a player may make a shoulder to shoulder charge on an opponent: (a) who is in possession of the ball, or (b) who is playing the ball, or (c) when both players are moving in the direction of the ball to play it.
No protective padding is worn by players. A plastic protective helmet with a faceguard is mandatory for all age groups, including senior level, as of 2010. The game has been described as “a bastion of humility”, with player names absent from jerseys and a player’s number decided by his position on the field.[1]
Hurling is played throughout the world, and is popular among members of the Irish diaspora in Canada, USA, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Argentina, and South Korea. In many parts of Ireland, however, hurling is a fixture of life.
It has featured regularly in art forms such as film, music and literature. The final of the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship was listed in second place by CNN in its “10 sporting events you have to see live”, after the Olympic Games and ahead of both the FIFA World Cup and UEFA Canadian Football Championship.
After covering the 1959 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Final between Kilkenny and Waterford for BBC Television, English commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme was moved to describe hurling as his second favourite sport in the world after his first love, football. In 2007, Forbes magazine described the media attention and population multiplication of Thurles town ahead of one of the game’s annual provincial hurling finals as being “the rough equivalent of 30 million Americans watching a regional lacrosse game”
