What's a Little Hurling Between Friends?

It's one of those fall days that people find irresistible and begs for some sort of outdoor activity. Blustery with a warm sun beaming down from a blue sky filled with puffy white clouds, drive past any park in the city and you'll find people out enjoying this fine autumn day. While some jog or run, other play frisbee, or fly a kite. Still others get in a tennis match, catch a pick-up game of basketball, or squeeze in a little baseball, soccer or football.

You'll find all that at Locust Point's Latrobe Park. At the back of the park, just before the park's carefully trimmed lawns gives way to nature once again, you'll find a crowd of people running down a field kicking what looks like a soccer ball. You may not notice that the field of play is larger than those used for either soccer or football, but you definitely notice when one of the player bends over and picks the ball up, only to drop it again and in one smooth motion kicks it over to a teammate.

They're not playing soccer or rugby. In fact, it is a game that predates both sports -- it's Gaelic football and it's making a comeback.

Getting the game

A first generation Irish-American, it was during a trip to Ireland in 1999 that Lucy Prendeville first became interested in Gaelic sports. Born in Cecil County, far from the rich Irish immigrant community in Baltimore, she wanted a way to connect with her Irish roots but also sought a way to give something back to the community.

In 2002, Prendeville helped start the Baltimore Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA).

"Irish sports were traditionally played in areas with a large Irish immigrant population. The sports were very popular in Baltimore during the '40s and '50s and they played here at Latrobe Park," Prendeville says.

Part of a  regional league, Baltimore GAA plays competitively against teams from D.C. Philly, New Jersey and New York during the summer months. The fall and spring are spent trying to attract new players and train them for the rigorous summer season.

"Our mission is to bring Irish sports to everybody, Irish or not," she states.

Ball players

While Gaelic football might be mistaken for an amalgamation of basketball, football, rugby and soccer, the sport predates them several hundred years. Gaelic football has been  popular pasttime since the 16th century, when teams of able-bodied men played for bragging rights against other towns or parishes.

The game is played by teams of 15 on a rectangular grass pitch with H-shaped goals at each end. The goal is to score by kicking or hitting the ball with the hand and getting it through the goals. Players advance the ball up the field with a combination of carrying, soloing  or dropping and then toe-kicking the ball upward into the hands, kicking, and hand-passing to their team-mates.


Using a ball slightly larger than a soccer ball, to score, a player must get ball into the net of a goal for three points, a 'goal', or through the uprights above the goal or one point, a 'point'. Gaelic footballers use their hands and there is no off-sides. Pllayers can kick or punch the ball, but can't throw it, They can run with the ball for three strides, bounce it, but only once or solo it, remembering not to take more than three strides in between solos.

The team with the highest score at the end of the match wins.

"We have coed leagues during the fall and introduce people to the sports and have a bit of fun," says Prendeville.

In the game

The non-profit Baltimore GAA also works with disabled and at-risk youth, bringing them the joy of accomplishment found in after a good game.

"Part of our mission is bringing the sport to Maryland, but we also work with groups like Maryland School for the Blind, where we teach the students how to play our sports," Prendeville explains.

The group's other goal is a little less lofty but essential. "We're also a social outlet for people, being able to go out and do things together other than just play sports."

That's what brought Liam Flynn to Latrobe Park. A resident of Mt. Vernon, Flynn says he'd been to Ireland a few times and seend people playing hurling and Gaelic football.

"I saw the Bohemian's, the local team, at some of the Irish festivals and said why not give it a try because they're very encouraging as far as people coming in. You don't have to be a sports star. It's a lot of fun and an interesting sport to learn and play," Flynn says.

Stick ball

The sport of hurling, for men, and camogie, for women, is older than the recorded history of Ireland. It is thought to predate Christianity, and said to have come to Ireland with the Celts. It has been a distinct Irish pastime for at least two millenia.

The object of the game is for players using a wooden stick, a hurley to hit a sliotar, a small ball similar in size to a field hockey ball but with raised edges, between the opponents' goalposts either over the crossbar for one point, or under the crossbar into a net guarded by a goalkeeper for one  three point goal.

The sliotar can be caught in the hand and carried for not more than four steps, struck in the air, or struck on the ground with the hurl. It can be kicked or slapped with an open hand, the hand pass, for shorter range passing. To carry the ball for more than three steps players have to bounce or balance the sliotar on the end of the hurley and the ball can only be handled twice while in his possession.

A bit o' home

For Claire Kelliher, one of just two Irish-born team members, the Baltimore GAA has given her the opportunity to play a sport she'd seen her brothers play in her native Ireland.

"It's a fantastic game to play and the Gaelic organizations are a great way to find a bit of home when you first come to a new country. My brothers played, but I never got the chance."

Taking up a new sport was not initimidating, Kelliher says because she knew everyone else was new as well.

"We're a very new team and a lot of the teams we're playing agains thave been around several years," she says.

New or not, the team was successful during the season just passed, making its way all the way to the nationals.



Walaika Haskins is a Baltimore-based freelance writer and managing editor of Bmore Media.