You can also check wikipedia. Just type in Irish stick fighting.
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Unavoidably Detained by the World
"Irishness is not primary a question of birth or blood or language; it is the condition on being involved in the Irish situation, and usually of being mauled by it."-Conor Cruise O'Brien
Hey dundee, I have one of those black thorn walking sticks would work real well your so funny. I started reading about it on google due to the movie The Wind That Shakes The Barley got me thinking about it. What is the name of the game they are playing in the movie looks like polo no horses, stick ball may be..?
Hope your spring is starting out well dundee-found anymore redheads lately?
thank you for the compliment...*s* glad i gave you a chuckle... havent seen wind that shakes the barley.... *S* i want to find a nice old blackthorn.... i guess i am looking for that one that calls out my name.... just has to have a special look i will know it when i see it.... *S*
I hven't seen the movie yet but if the sticks looked somewhat like hockey sticks it may have been hurling. Not the kind you do after too many drinks though.
ROFL Thanks Roberto, I do believe that was what I was looking for. I was looking around on the web and this was some serious fighting..I haven't seen the movie yet either. I can't wait..it looks so good. Thanks to both of you..and dundee ya can't beat a good blackthorn stick...lol
have fun with it and there is a guy on ebay that sells nice traditionaly seasoned in ireland shillelaghs... about $65 plus shipping...
The there points that make a well made Blackthorn cane are:
Thorns that are evenly spaced all around the cane. The cane must have a fine taper. The spurs cut close to the limb and small dimples are left behind each spur.
Some canes are passed off as blackthorn but are really made of Hawthorn (of a genus Crataegus a spring-flowering spiny shrub) this wood looks somewhat similar except that it does not have the same uniformity as Blackthorn.
I think the game you are talking about is hurling. From the GAA:
Hurling is a game similar to hockey, in that it is played with a small ball and a curved wooden stick. It is Europe's oldest field game. When the Celts came to Ireland as the last ice age was receding, they brought with them a unique culture, their own language, music, script and unique pastimes. One of these pastimes was a game now called hurling. It features in Irish folklore to illustrate the deeds of heroic mystical figures and it is chronicled as a distinct Irish pastime for at least 2,000 years.
The stick, or "hurley" (called camán in Irish) is curved outwards at the end, to provide the striking surface. The ball or "sliothar" is similar in size to a hockey ball but has raised ridges.
Hurling is played on a pitch approximately 137m long and 82m wide. The goalposts are the same shape as on a rugby pitch, with the crossbar lower than a rugby one and slightly higher than a soccer one.
You may strike the ball on the ground, or in the air. Unlike hockey, you may pick up the ball with your hurley and carry it for not more than four steps in the hand. After those steps you may bounce the ball on the hurley and back to the hand, but you are forbidden to catch the ball more than twice. To get around this, one of the skills is running with the ball balanced on the hurley To score, you put the ball over the crossbar with the hurley or under the crossbar and into the net by the hurley for a goal, the latter being the equivalent of three points."
Hope that helps. One of the old irish legends has a young boy (named Sétanta) using a hurley stick to kill a wolfhound thus getting his new name Cúchulainn.
Thanks for sharing that Madadh. This is all so interesting. The game does look like hockey.. I did find a url I would like to share it is the martial art of stick fighting.
That site was great. Will give some new moves next time I wear the kilt and carry a black thorn root.
Also, I think of hurling as closer to Indian Lacrosse. Its origins are similar .. a game that taught young men teamwork and how to fight. Have you ever seen the Mohawks play, it is a far cry from the college sport of today.