Last weekend about 12 other students and I went to Experience Gaelic Games which operates out of Na Fianna GAA Club to play some traditional Irish sports. It was a Saturday morning and it was pouring outside. Most of us were not too enthusiastic about going because of the rain, but once we made it there our spirits rose. We walked in and the people there were so warm and welcoming. They gave us a few minutes to dry off and offered us coffee, tea and cookies. Who could be upset about that? They gave us a short presentation on handball, Gaelic football and hurling to show us the basics.
Before we knew it, we were off to the handball court getting ready to play. We did a few exercises to get used to hitting the ball and received a quick briefing on the rules. With almost no practice, we were broken up into teams and had a handball match. When it was my teams turn to go, I was pretty nervous. But then, out of nowhere, I was quickly brought back to my days in elementary school. I remembered playing handball almost every day during recess. After realizing I already knew how to play, I felt ridiculous for ever forgetting that and soon fell into the swing of the game.
Once we finished with handball, we learned the basics of Gaelic football. Gaelic football is like soccer only you are allowed to touch the ball with your hands. We practiced passing the ball to each other, which was by bouncing it off our hands kind of like in volleyball and we also practiced soloing. In Gaelic football you can’t run more than four steps with the ball in your hand so to continue to move down the field you either pass the ball or do something called soloing. This means you take the ball and drop it onto your foot and kick it back up to yourself. It’s pretty hard to get used to, especially if you have no background in soccer.
When we got a feel for what we were doing, we went outside onto the field and had a scrimmage against each other. For a bunch of Americans who have never played the game before I don’t think we did too badly! It was a little hard to get used to not taking more than four steps and it was difficult to remember that we couldn’t just throw the ball to pass, but soon we all got the hang of it. Although we had a ton of fun playing Gaelic football, I think most of us were looking forward to playing hurling.
Hurling is the fastest field sport in the world. I can definitely vouch for that because I was ready to take a break about 45 seconds into the game. Hurling is a mixture of hockey, baseball, and lacrosse. It’s by far the hardest sport I’ve ever tried to play and is not something one can simply just pick up and be good at. The stick used is called a hurley and the ball, which is about the size of a tennis ball, is called a sliotar. Before our scrimmage, we practiced picking the sliotar up off the ground with our hurley. We had to get really low to the ground and put our hurley on top of the ball then roll our hurley quickly under the sliotar so that it ended up on top of our hurley. Then we practiced balancing the sliotar on our hurleys and passing the ball by knocking the sliotar off our stick and hitting it with our hand. We also practiced hitting the sliotar down the field, which was my favorite part. Finally, all those years of playing softball paid off.
Once we finished practicing it was scrimmage time. We were running up and down the field not making much progress at first, but then we started blocking each other and scoring goals. The boys dominated the field, but I think most of the goals scored were made by the girls. We were having so much fun running around, slapping sticks, trying to pick up the ball and hitting into each other (unintentionally, of course). As fun as it was, the game was very exhausting and for some of us, a little painful, but definitely worth it.
Even though some of us were complaining about the rain and being tired, after partaking in the Gaelic games we knew we made the right decision by going. We all had a blast and I wish we could have stayed longer. It was a great experience and I’m glad I’ll get to go home and tell everyone I learned the two most traditional Irish sports from the Irish themselves.
Cat Stamm
Champlain College Dublin Student Blogger
Champlain College Class of 2013