Hurling

[Hurlingnovice]

I have no idea what's going on but I'm really enjoying it! Can any Irish mumsnetters explain what is happening other than it seems like a mix of hockey, quidditch and lacrosse.

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i thought it was tennis balls, and thought it was crossed between tennis and rugby.!
great to see

Thank you @AlecTrevelyan006 I had no idea!!

Delighted for Clare. Great sport. Dangerous though. It's only in the last 15 years or so that helmets have become compulsory. Many decades ago my grandfather's 13 year old brother got hit on the head mid-match with the sliotar and dropped down dead.

Was it on all BBC not just NI BBC? I watched James Nesbitt say he hadn’t had the chance to enjoy it in his community growing up which I thought was very poignant.

It was on all bbc, I watched it in London

Ahh, that match was fab. We are a half-Irish household, but hurling not so common where DH grew up - it's played more in the southern counties. My niece and a few others live in Clare, so they were at the match, and celebrating tonight, no doubt.

A Lilywhite here so unlikely to ever have skin in the game. 🤣

Hup the Banner!

I remember my classmate getting whacked across face/eye 30+ years ago at a camogie match. Her eye was swollen shut for quite a while. Hurlers and camogie players are treated like demi Gods/goddeses at my old school in Co Antrim where it’s very popular… never had an interest in it.

BBC N Ireland show the inter-county Gaelic football games for Ulster teams starting in April every year. And they cover the All-Ireland semis and finals in both Hurling and Gaelic football every year too. You can watch all those on iPlayer. There's information about the various games available here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/northern-ireland/gaelic-games

There's also https://www.gaago.ie the official streaming service/app for watching Gaelic sports outside of Ireland.

Yep and has been for well over a century! I'm sure New York is too 😄

I’ve emailed the BBC and asked for more coverage of hurling/camogie and shinty games on British TV - maybe MNetters on this thread could do the same? It would be a pleasant change to the football.
I’d like to see more Curling matches as well, not just at the Winter Olympics.

Faded, I agree with you about the Curling, it’s very interesting - my DH and I ended up getting fascinated with it via the Winter Olympics coverage. These days we watch it on the Eurosport channel and their coverage is very good.

I’ve watched Shinty a few times on BBC Alba but I can’t really get into it; it feels a bit too tame in comparison to Hurling and Camogie (no offence to our Celtic cousins in Scotland 😊). I do think BBC should promote regional sports more, if not on the telly they could make them available on iPlayer.

Yes the kids play it in a lot of schools, definitely in rural ones and in counties where hurling is big, football is bigger in other counties. They wear helmets every time but our ds & dd constantly come home with huge leg bruises from getting a whack of a hurl at during sport time or lunchtime.

Watching it got me thinking of the difference between a high scoring game (hurling, basketball etc ...) and low scoring games (football). I think high scoring games are more exciting. It's a balancing act though.