Murray Bird recently had a couple of weeks in Ireland. He was so taken and moved by the people, their sport and their music, their friendliness and their likability, that he just had to get his thoughts on the page. This is an Almanac classic. It’s travel, observation and understated commentary. It’s wholehearted participation and engagement. Please, pour yourself a Guinness or a whisky, and immerse yourself in a superb account of a hurling game and what happened along the way in getting there. This is the story of a grand people and their rich history and culture.
Almanac Memoir: My Grandfather Played Hurling
August 1, 2019 by 16 Comments
Smokie favours us with this story of his beloved grandfather, Neddy Dawson, and ponders the appropriate curation of Neddy’s century-old Hurley.
Almanac Hurling (and Travel): An Australian on Tour (in search of kulcha)
April 11, 2018 by 4 Comments
Matt O’Hanlon and G-Squared are on tour in Ireland. Matt is having trouble with the language but he’s loving the kulcha. [Classic O’Hanlon and a great travel yarn – JTH]
Dion Fanning – Farewell the GAA summer and all the things I learned
November 10, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Dion Fanning returns to Dublin after 20 years, to find comfort in the Gaelic games of his youth. [Great piece on the place of sport in lives – Ed].
Almanac Hurling: Waterford v Clare – Ireland Division 1A Final Replay
May 9, 2016 by 2 Comments
After drawing the Division 1A final recently, Waterford and Clare “came back next week” for the replay. As reported in The Irish Times, the replay was a cracker – held yesterday in Thurles, County Tipperary.
Straight Talking Irishman tackles Discrimination
November 28, 2013 by 4 Comments
Peter Baulderstone offers the companion piece to last week’s blog from top Irish hurling player Conor Cusack about his journey with severe depression. Conor’s even more illustrious brother Donal Og is profiled in this article about his ‘coming out’ as a gay sportsman.
Irish Sportsmen Lead from the Heart
November 22, 2013 by 7 Comments
Peter Baulderstone loves that sport can be a vehicle for debate and change about important social issues, as Nicky Winmar and Adam Goodes have shown. The Irish have brave men like hurling champion brothers Conor and Donal Og Cusack. Here in the land of plenty and home of ‘The Bachelor’, we have Aker and Watto.
Ahh now, about the hurling
August 21, 2013 by 8 Comments
A shared love of sport – in this case hurling – traverses all borders, as David Wilson can attest.
Speech: D.J. Carey and the ‘craic’
March 19, 2010 by 5 Comments
This is an edited version of a speech given by Paul Daffey to Melbourne’s Irish History Circle at the Celtic Club in February 2010. I stand before you in the GAA jersey of Kilkenny, one of the combined 32 counties of the Republic and the North, all of whom contest the annual All-Ireland Championship in [Read more]
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