As a person of Irish descent, I have always looked fondly on my Irish heritage. Most people do not believe that I'm Irish - mainly because I am not a short, freckled man with red hair and a pot o' gold - but are convinced once they realize that my last name is Carey, which couldn't belong to any other nationality besides the Irish.
But other than automatically believing, and finding to be true, that I have an innate ability to drink massive amounts of beer, I have never really found anything to truly hang my hat on about being Irish.
That is until an aunt and uncle of mine visited Ireland two years ago, and introduced me to my home country's national sport: Hurling.
Now I know what you are thinking, but this is not a typo.
It's not Curling, the world renowned sport of Olympic boredom or hurling"" as in what my roommates do after a hard night at the beer pong tables - which accumulated last weekend in a broken bathroom sink.
But I mean hurling as in the national sport of Ireland, the sport that originated in that great country; the sport that involves a ball, a stick and 30 grown men on a field who are trying to mutilate each other.
Hurling is played with up to 15 players on a team, and consists of a goalie, two cornerbacks, three halfbacks, two midfielders, three half-forwards, two corner-forwards and one center-forward.
There is little to no equipment used in this game. There is a ball, or the sloitar (pronounced slith-er), an axe shaped stick which is called a hurl or hurley, and that's it. There is no padding worn, only a plastic protective helmet with faceguard that is recommended but not required for players who are over the age of 21.
The game is fairly simple, score points by throwing the sloitar - by using the hurley - over the goalie crossbar for one point, or in the goalie net for three. The goal is set up as an 'H' post, much like in rugby matches, which are also amazing.
There are many ways to move the sloitar. It can be caught in the hand - but can only be carried for four steps - struck in the air, or hit on the ground with the hurley. The sloitar can also be kicked or slapped with an open hand, which is appropriately named ""the hand pass,"" for short-range passing.
A player who wants to carry the ball for more than three steps has to bounce it or balance the ball on the end of the hurl. However, the ball can only be handled twice while in that player's possession.
Side-to-side shouldering is allowed although body-checking or shoulder-charging is illegal. However, there are many ways to inflict pain on your opponent, some of which are the ""block,"" the ""hook"" and the ""side pull.""
The block is when one player attempts to smother an opposing player's strike by trapping the ball between his hurley and the opponent's swinging hurley. The hook is where a player approaches another player from behind and attempts to catch the opponents hurley with his own at the top of the swing. And finally, the side pull requires two players to run together for the sloitar, only to collide at the shoulders and swing together to win the tackle and pull the sloitar really hard.
Players may be tackled but not struck by a one handed slash of the hurley, which means that players can hack away on each other as long as two hands are on the hurley. Jersey-pulling, wrestling, tripping and pushing are all forbidden. But that doesn't mean that they don't happen.
I am brought to the memory of my uncle explaining the game to me, most importantly the part about one player scooping up the sloitar, only to turn and whip it at a player from the opposing team, trying to deliberately hit him.
Feel free to head to YouTube, or any other video site, and type in hurling. You won't be disappointed by what you find. Let's just say it isn't coined as the ""Fastest field game of all time"" for nothing.
The game originated before the history of Ireland even began to be recorded. But in 1884, the Gaelic Athletic Association was founded, and from there the rest is literally history, or in this case the history of Ireland.
All of this - the antiquity, the tradition, the skills needed, the random violence- - only adds to my love of a game I have hardly seen played, and I can only hope that one day I will be able to take a trip back to the homeland and watch a game or two.
But hey, who says Ireland doesn't need sports writers?
If you'd like to start an on campus hurling team with Nate, e-mail him at ncarey@dailycardinal.com.
