WASHINGTON, October 11, 2011 – It always takes a while for sports to cross the pond, but once they do, they’re a sight to behold. Hurling, the national sport of Ireland, has slowly expanded its presence in North America in the last 50 years. In fact, the Washington area is home to the Washington D.C. Gaels, an amateur sports club that fields teams in hurling, camogie (ladies’ hurling), and both men’s and women’s Gaelic football.
Like many early sports, hurling came about as an activity taking the place of warfare, a sorely needed alternative in a time when small fiefdoms blanketed Ireland.
“Hurling was originally village against village, clan against clan,” says Justin Golden, club secretary and hurling corner forward for the Gaels. “It goes back to the Middle Ages, and is referenced in Irish antiquity, going back 800 to 1000 years.”
The origins of hurling may actually predate the history of modern Ireland, as far back as the fifth century. Hurling also features in the great Irish epics, including the Táin Bó Cúailnge and the Fiannaidheacht, both set around the 1st century AD.
As for the game itself, Golden describes hurling as “a cross between lacrosse and field hockey.” The rules for hurling, camogie, and Gaelic football are near identical, the primary difference being the larger ball used in Gaelic football. Points are scored in two ways. First, if the ball is hit (or occasionally kicked) into a goal the same size as a soccer goal, it is worth three points. The second scoring method is to strike the ball through the uprights on top of the goalposts, similar to a field goal in North American football, which is worth one point. The ways to move the ball downfield are numerous, including carrying the ball by hand, balancing it on the end of the hurley (shaped like a field hockey stick), or striking the ball through the air with the hurley. Punishable offenses are few and far between, unlike the vast number of penalties that can be called in North American sports like hockey.
Hurling in the United States has generally been focused around cities with high Irish populations, such as New York, Boston, and San Francisco. But even though the D.C. area is not a traditional hotspot for Gaelic sports, the Gaels are the only North American Club to have won national championships in hurling, camogie, and men’s and women’s Gaelic football.
Hurling may not be as widely known in the United States as other sports from across the Atlantic, but as ancient sports increase in popularity, hopefully it will continue to grow in North America.
For more information about the sports of hurling, camogie, and Gaelic football in the Washington, DC area, you can visit the Washington D.C. Gaels website at http://www.wdcgaels.com. For information about the four sports in general, you can visit the Gaelic Athletic Association website at http://www.gaa.ie/, or the North American County Board website at http://www.nagaa.org/.
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