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For as long as human beings have existed, they have been smacking balls with sticks. It is therefore difficult to point to the origins of Hurling (iomáint). At over 3000 years old, the sport exists as a representation of Irish culture, and time itself, with even the famed mythological hero Cú Chulainn himself known to be a master with a hurl (camán). 

A camán is traditionally made of ash wood. Measured by holding it against the leg, a camán of the right fit will reach your waist from the ground, and its distinct, wide base is used to send a sliotar (a small cork-ball encased by two pieces of leather stitched together) toward the goal of the opponent. A score is achieved by getting the sliotar over the bar and earns a point, while a goal is worth three points, won by getting the sliotar under the bar and into the net.  

Hurling is the fastest sport on grass, and a branch of it exists by the name of Camogie (camógaíocht), played by women.  

 

Gaelic Football (Peil Ghaelach/Peil) shares many similarities with Hurling. It is played on the same pitch, sometimes by the same players, of which teams are made up of 15 for both sports, and they share the same scoring system.  

Peil is played with what is known as ‘the big ball’ and is carried with the hands for four steps, before the player must either bounce, ‘toe-tap’ (an action of dropping the ball to the foot and kicking it back into the hands), or release the ball.  

Up to the late 19th century, various forms of Peil were played in Ireland. The first recorded instance of the game was known as Caid and was made in 1308. The form the sport takes today was created through the ‘rough’ influence of rugby and was eventually regulated with the introduction of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA). 

 

Established in 1884, the GAA would go on to amalgamate the four Gaelic games, iománt, camógaíocht, Peil, and liathróid láimhe (handball). Liathróid láimhe also existed in many forms throughout Irish history, as it did in many other cultures, with the first recorded evidence of a similar game coming from the statues of Galway in 1527. 

The GAA manages the four sports on an amateur basis at both a club and inter-county level. The sporting body operates today from its headquarters at Dublin’s 82,000-capacity Croke Park, named after prominent Irish Nationalist, Archbishop Thomas Croke.   

The names of stadiums, playing fields, and clubs are often dedicated to revolutionary, often militant, Irish Republicans. Austin Stack, an Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) volunteer, has a club and a playing ground named after him. Kevin Lynch’s hurling club is named after an Irish Nationalist Liberation Army (INLA) hunger striker.  In the six counties in Ireland still occupied by the British state, prominent British Unionists often use these names to politicise the GAA, using it as a stick to beat Irish Republicanism with.  

 

Emigration and diaspora are as much a part of Irish culture as the Gaelic games, and so places such as London are represented in the GAA inter-county All Ireland Championship. It is inevitable then, that clubs in London exist such as Thomas McCurtain’s, named after Tomás Mac Curtain, a Sinn Féin Lord Mayor of Cork assassinated by the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) in 1920. Or Robert Emmet’s, named after a prominent Irish rebel that fought to keep political Nationalism alive after the failed uprising in 1798.  

Contrastingly with the six counties, British people living in Britain seem to be either unbothered, or unaware of GAA clubs playing on their soil that are named after men that would have very much have been considered any enemy of the British state, and the terrorists of their day. 

 

It is undeniable that the GAA holds historic links with the Irish political struggle. There were indeed many founders, and have been countless members, of the GAA that have been militant Republicans. It was during a match between Tipperary and Dublin on the grounds of Croke Park in 1920 that 14 civilians were murdered and 80 wounded by the British Army. And it was Oisin McConville that said,  

‘It was good to stick the fingers up and say 'regardless of what you do, you can land your helicopters here, you can build your barracks on top of us, you can stop us, throw our clothes out on the street, throw our bags out, you can chase people going to training, you can try and intimidate us, but fuck you, we're going to win an All-Ireland anyway.,’ when reflecting on Crossmaglen Rangers’ six All Ireland Club Championships since 1997, many of which were won from their British Army-occupied grounds in South Armagh.    

-Seán Óg Ó Murchú 

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