Hurling is best described as a mixture of hockey and gaelic football, though it predates both of these. It is a field game, the fastest field game in the world (and only Ice Hockey is faster), in which 15 players compete against each other with sticks or "hurls", which are similar to hockey sticks but are larger and flatter at the end. The picture above(from RTE Website) shows a group of hurls. A ball similar to a hockey ball but has raised ridges is used, this is called a sliothar. The hurlers, as they are called, shoot into a goal(similar to a rugby goal) which is similar to the shape of a capital letter H, except that the center line(or bar) is lower. The goal, the area below the bar, contains goalkeeper and if a team scores in the goal it counts as a goal which is equal to three points. Above the bar is called a point, and obviously corresponds to one point. The origins of Hurling predate recorded history, while the Gaelic Athletic Association(GAA) was set up in 1884 by a nationalist Michael Cusack. Today one of the main stands at Croke Park in Dublin is named after him. The GAA was set up to not only promote gaelic games(football, hurling, handball, camogie and rounders), but also to promote the Irish language, music and dance. Today it is the largest sporting association in Ireland. Hurling itself was brought to Ireland by the Celts who arrived in Ireland over two thousand years ago. It has since been prevalent in many Irish legends as can be seen from this excerpt taken from the RTE Website...

"Irish legend states that the battle of Moytura, about 2,000BC was preceded by a fierce hurling match, 27-a -side with the casualties buried under a huge cairn. There are also the many legends of Cuchulainn and his exploits with a hurley and ball."

There are many other references to Hurling throughout Irish and Celtic legends. A statue of that famous celtic warrior Cuchulainn, who was remembered as a great hurler, now stands in the GPO on O'Connell Street.

"Hurling is played on a pitch approximately 137m long and 82m wide. 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.

"Each team consists of fifteen players, lining out as follows: One goalkeeper, three full-backs, three half-backs, two midfielders, three half-forwards and three full-forwards. Goalkeepers may not be physically challenged whilst inside their own small parallelogram, but players may harass them into playing a bad pass, or block an attempted pass."