There is no more enduring symbol of Irish culture than hurling, a 3,000-year-old Gaelic sport billed as the fastest game on grass. The game is intertwined with the oldest legends and folklore of Ireland.
Small wonder, then, that close to two dozen students in Elaine (Cawley) Weintraub’s high school Irish History class were psyched to experience it yesterday at Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School’s (MVRHS) Dan McCarthy Field.
Ms. Weintraub, head of the MVRHS history department and a native of County Mayo in Ireland, has been offering students in her Irish History class the opportunity to play hurling for the last three years. Soon enough on Wednesday morning, two teams of seven or eight players were roaring up and down the field, wielding flat-headed sticks (“hurleys”) that look like truncated field hockey sticks.
Hurling is widely thought of as a game for the slightly deranged (though a recent 5-year clinical study rated it as less harmful than ice or field hockey). It’s played only by amateur men and women across the world, wherever Irish expatriates have settled.
The object of the game is to score a 3-point goal by hitting the ball (sliotar) into a net guarded by a goalkeeper, or to score a 1-point goal by hitting the ball between upright goalposts above the net. Players may use their hands to catch the leather wrapped cork ball in the air and their feet to pass it, but must pass the ball or carry the ball with their hurleys to advance it. They must also bounce the ball off the hurley while carrying it at top speed with defenders attempting to dislodge it with sticks or by contact.
Devon Araujo’s spiked doo and green face paint was reminiscent of Braveheart and provided a droll touch to the proceedings yesterday. “The concept is the same as lacrosse but the hurley is flat, compared with the pouch on a lacrosse stick, so that makes it difficult to carry,” said Devon, a lacrosse player.
Hockey player Dorian Johnson said, “Obviously, one difference is that it’s played on a field rather than on ice. Hitting the ball out of the air requires a lot of hand-eye (coordination).”
Patryck Arascimente is a hurling veteran, with three years on the Dan McCarthy pitch. “Takes a little time to get the hang of it. But it’s fairly simple when you do. You need good arm strength to hit the ball, though.”
Referees Giulia Leite and Celena Guimaraes were marked by stylish Burger King-type crowns. Clearly they had read the rule book. “No, you can’t pick up the ball with your hand,” they told a confused player. “You can catch it in the air but you have to use your stick to pick it up.”
Hurling requires an athleticism that combines the skills needed for baseball (hitting and fielding), hockey and lacrosse (stick and passing skills) and soccer (fitness, body control and strategy). “That’s true: we watched a video on the game in preparation (for today) that emphasized those points and how they are important to the game,” Ms. Weintraub said.
No stranger to the game, she wore her Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) jacket to the field. The GAA is the hurling governing body in Ireland. “Hurling is played by both men and women in Ireland and they say the women are fiercer than the men,” she chuckled in a soft brogue. MVRHS junior Jennifer Rosado represented the distaff side in the match.
Ms. Weintraub is a fan of hands-on learning. “So much of what we learn focuses on the “why” aspect. It’s also important to see “how” things work as well,” she said.