Hurling Madness!

I apologize for the delay in posting. Lots of stuff going on. It was a busy weekend indeed. I went down to Cork for the weekend, saw the Blarney Stone and visited the beach. It was a great time, but that story will wait for tomorrow. Today is about a little sport we call hurling.

For the loyal readers, you will remember I gave you a brief overview of hurling back on my first day in Ireland when we went to the Hurlers Pub. One of the things we wanted to try to do was attend a Gaelic sporting event, either football or hurling. It so happened that our trip coincided with the Munster Regional Championship. Our University of Limerick professor said that it was an event not to be missed. In talking with a few of the locals they said the best teams in Ireland come from Munster and the championship just so happened to be in Limerick. I'm pretty sure this match would be like going to watch Game 7 of the ALCS or something. Anyway, I was sold on the game.

The match we were to see between Tipperary and Clare. Tipp (as the locals call it) is about 40 km southeast of Limerick, while Clare was 35 km to the northwest. I asked a local who to root for and he suggested Tipperary. Again, it didn't take much to convince me about picking sides. The only problem was both Tipperary and Clare had the same team colors — blue and yellow. In fact, Tipperary's flag is a blue rectangle next to a yellow rectangle, while Clare's flag consists of a yellow flag next to a blue one. So blindly I chose to wear blue. It turned out to a good call.

We left for the Gaelic grounds shortly after 1 p.m. hoping to catch a bus to downtown where we could walk to the stadium. Except for the traffic on Dublin Road was a mess and we could almost walk as fast as it was traveling. After spending 25 minutes waiting futilely at the bus stop we decided the best course of action was to go to Burger King, eat greasy food, allow everyone to load up on whiskey and call a cab.

Our cab driver took us relatively close to the stadium and dropped us off in the middle of fan chaos. Think downtown Lincoln before a football game, only everyone in the entire stadium is walking on the same street and the city really isn't enforcing the open container laws. Also as we got out we were handed inflatable hurling sticks for free. (Hello souvenirs!)

When we arrived at the stadium we made our way to the City End section where our tickets were for. We opted to get just general admission to save a few Euro. Apparently, by general admission, they mean mass chaos. We eventually found a section about two-thirds of the way up and hung out. Other thoughts about the stadium: it is a large bowl with seating on each of the sidelines (one of which was covered) and concrete steps for standing at both ends. The teams were divided by loyalty (Luckily we got into the Tipp side) and colors. The end zones are standing only. Try to sit down, but the seats were so low it wasn't worth it. We stood the whole game -- and no one complained, not even the blue hairs. Smoking is allowed in the stadium. During halftime, a giant white cloud loomed over the stadium.

With the championship game set to begin at 4 p.m., we were treated to what I think was the junior league Munster championship between Tipperary and Cork. Cork but the Tipps didn't care much because they were there for the main event. After the field cleared following the first match a band marched around the field with each of the county's flags. They played a song toward each section of the stadium. They repeated the march after the teams came out with the members of the starting lineup following behind.

Hurling is an interesting sport. They say it is the quickest ball game out there. I'll take their word for it. It is played with 15 people (goalie, 3 fullbacks, 3 halfbacks, 2 midfielders, 3 forwards and 3 full forwards) who wear Numbers 1-15 from back to front. The object is to take the ball, which is slightly smaller than a baseball and a little bit smaller, and either 1. hit it or kick it over the goal post for one point or hit it under the crossbar for a goal for three points. These two methods of scoring are kept separate which leads to confusing scores like 2-18 def. 1-19.

Also, they can catch and run with the ball for three steps. After that, they have to balance the ball on their stick or pass it to a teammate by hitting it, throwing it underhand or bouncing it off the stick and hitting it with their hand.

The play was quick and included lots of scoring. Tipp scored three times in the first five minutes.
The way they scored was impressive too. Some of the shots were from midfield and from sideline to sideline. They not only could give the ball a good whack, but the players knew how to play the angles. (The referees that indicated the goals and points wore lab coats and waved little white flags.)

Tipp continued to dominate and led 1-16 to 0-6 at one point in the second half, but then Clare rallied and got to within 1-16, 0-15 before Tipp scored a goal to take control again. In the end, Tipp prevailed 2-21 to 0-19. Again the entire stadium — some 48,000 people — poured out of the stadium on onto a street headed into downtown Limerick. We followed the crowd, grabbed some dinner and headed back to campus. Overall, it was a great game and fun to be part of the atmosphere. I tried to take some video, but between where we were sitting and the fast pace of the action, my video isn't very good.

Not much happening back in Limerick. Several of us watched Braveheart in preparation for our trip to Scotland. So awesome. To further our prep, we are going to the driving range on Tuesday so they don't boo us off St. Andrews. Also, I think we talked our teachers into canceling class on Wednesday so we can go visit Galway. Good times.

Cheers,

LJLA