Portumna

Hurling is one of the oldest field games in the world and has been popular for at least 3000 years in Ireland with the first literary reference dating back to 1272 BC.
The story of people hitting a ball with a stick is a story which is told everywhere, from Iceland to Ethiopia to the Far East and across to the Aztecs.&nbsp;&nbsp;
You look at the Lacrosse played by the American Indians, the stick and ball games played by the Mongols, the Berber stick and ball game played on the sands of the desert. The Irish game of hurling is a modern variant of a theme that is written through history, across millennia.

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But, Irish nationalists of Victorian times were not going to let the truth get in the way of a good myth, a good nation defining myth!
What happened, or so I am led to believe, in the 19th century when those old texts were being translated, they were being translated in a period of heady Irish nationalism, where the culture of the British empire was sweeping through – what was considered to be all Gaelic culture – out to the margins of society, and those people who were doing the translations applied the word 'hurling', a modern word, to that old story of playing ... with a stick and a ball.
Hurling pops up in Irish myths and legends, the most famous of which has to be the early account found in the Táin Bo Cuailgne, a legendary tale from early Irish literature, which describes the exploits of the Ulster hero Cú Chullainn, (literally meaning Hound of Cullen) who was so named after killing a fierce guard dog by driving a hurling ball down its throat.&nbsp;
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Such stories often portray Hurling as a form of martial training and proficiency on the Hurling field was equated with skill in battle! Throughout the countryside, Hurling thrived as a wild and often violent practice with few set rules.&nbsp;
The Celtic legal system, the Brehon Laws, provided for compensation for hurling accidents and provisions were also made for cases of deliberate injury, or even death, as a result of Hurling.&nbsp;
The game was outlawed in the 12th century after the occupation by the Normans, but it survived and even flourished up to the early 19th century mainly due to patronisation by the landlords.

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The sport was played widely in the 1700s, thanks to the patronage of protestant landlords. The great matches were held for big price sums, Hurling was very much accepted as a sport of the people and patronised by men of importance. In soccer terms in Britain, they were the club owners at the time.
By the time of the Great Famine of 1846 – 1849, Hurling had declined dramatically and was in danger of dying out completely, however, Dublin Castle itself admitted that by the late 1850s, Hurling was being played all over Munster and records of the game survive in Donegal, Down Kilkenny and Longford.

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There was much variation in the forms of the stick and ball games played in Ireland including:&nbsp;
<ul>
<li>Cross country scuaib in Clare and South Galway.&nbsp;</li>
<li>The Camán (anglicized to commons) game was played due north of the Dublin Galway railway line and epicentred in Ulster’s communal heartlands.&nbsp;</li>
<li>Iomán form of the Hurling that was regulated by the Killimor Daly rules of south Galway and the more obscure local rules drafted by James Maher of Tipperary before the famine.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>

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The 19th century saw a new version of Hurling, or hurley as it was referred to, become popular within the upper classes. A defining ten year period for Hurling was before the establishment of the Gaelic Athletic Association in 1884.&nbsp;
By 1879, there were at least six hurley clubs among the gentry in Dublin, and the Irish Hurley Union was founded in Trinity College. It was exclusively an upper-class preserve and bore little relation to traditional concepts of the game.&nbsp;

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During this period, the various forms of the game all metamorphosed into the first nationally codified sport of Hurling, which was in essence, the summer game of Leinster and the South.&nbsp;
Camán, the ground Hurling winter game which according to mid-nineteenth century accounts had been more widespread and popular within Ireland than its younger Hurling sibling, was to fade away, even in Ulster where it had been played for generations.
A Clareman named Michael Cusack had realised the need for common regulations and this inspired much of his thinking with regard to the formation of the GAA.&nbsp;

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In order to preserve the game of Hurling, Cusack had begun writing about its revival in 1882 in a newspaper The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News and in 1884 the GAA was founded to restore the Gaelic pastimes of old.
Since the foundation of the GAA in 1884 and the introduction of a formal set of rules, the game of Hurling has evolved to the game we see today. The original core concept of man on man contests for the ball within the defined framework of a positional game has been added changed to varying degrees over time.
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Hurling is played throughout the world, and is popular among members of the Irish diaspora in North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Argentina, and South Korea.&nbsp;
In many parts of Ireland, however, hurling is a fixture of life.

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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 European Championship.
Alex Ferguson used footage of an All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship final in an attempt to motivate his players during his time as manager of Premier League football club Manchester United; the delicate players looked shocked at the standard of physicality and intensity in which the hurlers were engaged.

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Financial Times columnist Simon Kuper wrote after Stephen Bennett's performance in the 2020 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Final that hurling was "the best sport ever and if the Irish had colonised the world, nobody would ever have heard of football".
Hurling is considered an intrinsic part of Irish culture and plays a central role in promoting health and wellbeing, inclusiveness and team spirit. <a href="https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/hurling-01263" target="_blank">UNESCO</a> lists hurling as an element of Intangible cultural heritage.

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Whoever invented the crest for the parish, stumbled upon something magical. 
Because when you see what people will go through for their parish, for their club, when they put on those parish colours, attached to that is the crest of their club, and all it means to them, the thrill of that leather ball hitting off the ash, controlling the ball with a stick of ash.&nbsp;
And that feeling from the hurley, from the bás of the hurley of the leather hitting it, running up along the handle, into your hand and and straight to your soul.&nbsp;&nbsp;
Hurling sets your heart and soul on fire, causes a rage within your bloodstream, until the story writes itself.
Portumna has a thriving hurling scene, and with local clubs preparing to get back to training, now is a great time to join one of our fantastic clubs, <a href="https://xploreapp.io/portumna/lifestyle/portumna-gaa-club-vecuk" target="_blank">Portumna GAA</a> and <a href="https://xploreapp.io/portumna/lifestyle/portumna-camogie-club-escca" target="_blank">Portumna Camogie!</a> 
And remember to always shop local and support the circular economy, visit <a href="https://xploreapp.io/portumna/shopping/canning-hurleys-cbvky" target="_blank">Canning Hurleys </a> for your hurleys and sliotars.

Living for the love of hurling

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