LINDA PIZZUTI HENRY was one of the interested spectators at Fenway Park in Boston for last night’s hurling clash between Dublin and Galway.
And the wife of Liverpool Football Club owner John W. Henry was impressed by what she saw.
At the home of the Red Sox, the Dubs and the Tribesmen served up a spectacle that’s captured the imagination of the local Boston public.
The Boston Globe and Boston Herald newspapers have been effusive in their praise this morning
“There really isn’t a US-based sport for one-on-one comparison, but hurling includes elements a North American would identify in lacrosse, ice hockey, baseball, soccer, and basketball,” writes Kevin Paul Dupont in the Boston Globe.
“By a Yank’s eye, it’s a mongrel, one with a greyhound’s speed and a pit bull’s bite.”
“All the goalies, five of whom saw action, made stops that rated somewhere between impossible and something out of the Pixar animation lab.
“Take the three best goalie saves across the NHL (National Hockey League) on any given night, none would compare with those which Galway’s Colm Callanan and James Skehill and Dublin’s Dooley, Gary Maguire, and Alan Nolan fashioned across the 60 minutes.”
“It’s better than St. Pattie’s (sic) Day where basically everyone is drunk,” said Jim Behan of Nahant, speaking to the Boston Herald. “You can see everything else and what Ireland has to bring. That’s what I really enjoy.”
Brendan Daly, 65, of Kittery, Maine, grew up in Dublin and he said: “It brings back memories of being in Croke Park and listening to the Artane Boys Band.”
“It wouldn’t be exciting without a fight,” said Mary Behen of Nahant, also a Dublin native.
All in all, a pretty good night then!
