Updated 15.45
LAST SUNDAY WEEK, Dutch journalist Gerard de Jong travelled to Ireland and attended his first hurling game when watching the All-Ireland senior hurling final between Tipperary and Kilkenny.
He had spent the weekend familiarising himself with the sport of hurling and what is involved in an All-Ireland final weekend.
Gerard is editor-in-chief for Dutch local newspaper de Bildtse Post and a freelance journalist. With his kind permission, his impressions of the sport are outlined below.
This is an edited version of an article previously published in Dutch newspaper NRC Handelblad, translated to English by Gerard for The42.
Hurling is the pride of Ireland - Immortal at Croke Park
More than 82,000 Irish flocked to Croke Park on Sunday to witness the yearly high mass of the national sport, hurling: the All-Ireland Senior Championship Final.
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The Hogan Stand pub is named after star Gaelic footballer and Irish Volunteers member Michael Hogan. In 1920, on ‘Bloody Sunday’, he was killed when police opened fire during a football match.
On the walls are many faded, sunkissed memories of glorious moments from hurling history.
The pub owner proudly shows a framed photograph: hurling legend Eddie Keher and boxer Muhammad Ali, playing keepie-upp with the sliothar on a hurley in 1972.
Of course, The Greatest was here too, to watch the fastest sport on earth.
Out of the misery
The Hogan Stand is located in the grim, deprived Ballybough, one of the poorest districts of Dublin.
One day of the year the neighbourhood is lifted from the misery, and finds itself to be the centre of all of Ireland. Because Ballybough hosts Páirc an Crócaigh.
Croke Park is the home of the biggest sports organisation of Ireland, the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA). The association is responsible for hurling and Gaelic football.
The GAA is very comfortable financially. Airline Etihad Airways signed a multi-million euro deal to sponsor the sport for five years.
That money isn’t disappearing in the pockets of some big shots though. The GAA divides most assets over the many clubs in all counties across the land.
“It’s going back to its origin,” hurling journalist Keith Duggan says. “Hurling is a grass roots sport.”
The GAA wants to preserve the sport. With the money, young boys can start out with guidance and decent equipment. Tickets for the final are distributed by the association to the clubs, so that volunteers and others involved won’t miss out.
Names are taboo
In a sports world dominated by money, hurling is entirely left field. The players, even the very best, do not earn a salary.
There’s a reason hurling is being described as a ‘bastion of humility’. The kits display only field numbers on the back, names are taboo.
And transfers?
Duggan: “Out of the question. You play for the county you were born in.”
All-Ireland Sunday. Eoin and Betty (“let’s just say we are well in our seventies”) both wear a shirt of their club, Kilkenny.
“This will be my 59th All-Ireland,” Eoin proudly declares. “It’s unfathomable that we are not here on the first Sunday of September.
“It’s a ritual, almost like religion. With the All-Ireland we celebrate this beautiful sport.”
Despite the rivalry being enormous, fans of both teams walk up to the stadium together, drink beer together.
On the dying notes of the Irish national anthem, the ball is put into play.
The Cats and Tipp are evenly matched. There’s no time for a breather, scores add up in a murderous pace. At half time Tipperary lead by two points, but consensus is that won’t be enough for them to see it out.
After half time something extraordinary happens. Something no-one thought was possible. Tipperary score a goal. And another one. Every ball going towards the H-shaped goal flies between the poles.
Kilkenny, the favourites, are being destroyed.
“I simply cannot believe it,” a Tipp fan says, shaking his head in disbelief. There are tears in his eyes.
Drinking beer
Immediately after the match, with glitters raining down on the pitch, forward John O’Dwyer has a microphone shoved under his nose.
“We’re champions of fucking Ireland!,” he yells out, ecstatic. The f-word, echoing around the stadium, raises some eyebrows, but all is soon forgiven.
At The Hogan Stand bar, hundreds of people gather afterwards to analyze the match and drink beer.
On Monday night, thousands come to Thurles (8,000 inhabitants) to give the hurlers a homage for heroes.
With Tipp’s victory – 2-29 to 2-20 – hurling came home: Thurles is located in Tipperary, and is the town where in 1884 the GAA was established.
And then Séamus Callanan who was born nearby there as well, he was named man of the match.
Callanan, accepted his prize – two plane tickets to Abu-Dhabi – seemingly bemused. For the real prize is the honour.
Callanan’s name will be engraved into the history of the sport. On the honourable walls of temple Croke Park.
And indelible in the collected memory of a proud nation, that organizes and experiences sports in its own unique way. Achieve that, and you are truly immortal.
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