The fastest game on grass, how an ancient Irish sport still captivates a whole nation every single summer

Every single summer, something quietly remarkable unfolds right across the green fields and the packed stadiums of Ireland, something that very often takes visitors completely by surprise when they stumble upon it for the very first time. It is a sport that is at once breathtakingly fast, extraordinarily skilful and genuinely ancient, and yet it still remains almost entirely amateur, played purely for the sheer love of the game and for the fierce, burning pride of one's own home place.

A game with ancient roots

The particular sport in question here is hurling, and it can quite comfortably lay a very strong and serious claim to being one of the oldest field games found anywhere in the entire world today. Its deep and tangled roots reach all the way back an astonishing three thousand years and more, woven tightly into the myths, the legends and the everyday folklore of the island long before most of the world's more familiar modern sports had even been dreamt of.

For countless successive generations, this truly remarkable old game has been lovingly passed down from parents to their children, from one small rural village to the very next, somehow surviving through every imaginable kind of hardship and upheaval. Today it is carefully organised and enthusiastically promoted by a national sporting association that was first founded all the way back in the eighteen eighties, and which patiently nurtures the sport at every level.

The fastest game on grass

To sit down and watch a single full match of hurling for the very first time can honestly be a genuinely dizzying and almost completely overwhelming experience for the unprepared newcomer. The game is very widely and proudly described as the single fastest sport played on grass anywhere in the whole wide world, and it truly does not take very long at all for a first time spectator to understand exactly why that rather bold claim is so richly and thoroughly deserved.

The players each wield a long curved wooden stick, carved traditionally from strong ash wood, which they use to strike a small and remarkably hard leather ball across quite astonishing distances and at a truly ferocious speed. With almost unbelievable skill, they can also pluck that very same ball clean out of the air, balance it delicately on the flat edge of the stick while sprinting along at full tilt, and then send it soaring high between the distant posts.

Played for pride, not for pay

Perhaps the single most surprising and genuinely admirable aspect of this entire thrilling spectacle, at least to most curious outside eyes, is the simple and striking fact that the players themselves are not professionals at all. These supremely gifted and dedicated athletes, who regularly perform in front of enormous and deafeningly loud crowds, are not paid so much as a single cent for proudly pulling on the famous jersey of their own beloved home county.

By day, they are all perfectly ordinary working people, quietly holding down completely regular jobs as teachers, farmers, tradesmen, nurses and office workers, exactly like their cheering neighbours up in the packed stands. They train relentlessly and tirelessly in the dark evenings and across long weekends, driven onward by nothing more than a deep and utterly unshakeable sense of loyalty to the place where they happened to be born and raised.

A summer that ends at Croke Park

The great hurling season slowly builds and steadily gathers its unstoppable momentum right across the long and warm summer months, winding its way through a whole series of fiercely and passionately contested regional championships. County does battle against neighbouring county, ancient rivalry meets ancient rivalry once again, and one by one the many hopeful teams are gradually whittled down until only the very best of them all remain proudly standing.

The whole long and dramatic journey finally reaches its truly glorious climax at a vast and justly famous old stadium right in the beating heart of the city of Dublin, where the grand final is played out afresh each year. Well over eighty thousand utterly passionate supporters somehow pack themselves tightly into the towering stands, while many hundreds of thousands more watch on intently from their own homes, both all across Ireland and far beyond its shores.

The champions of this year

This particular year once again proved to be another thoroughly memorable and genuinely dramatic new chapter in the long, rich and deeply storied history of the ancient game. After a full summer of thrilling and very often nail biting contests, it was ultimately the team proudly representing the county of Limerick that finally triumphed, overcoming a brave and determined side from Galway in the showpiece final itself.

That hard fought victory marked yet another glittering title for a county that has firmly established itself as a genuine powerhouse of the entire modern era, adding once more to an already hugely impressive and still growing collection of honours. For the exhausted players and their fiercely devoted supporters alike, it was the perfect crowning reward for many long months of relentless effort, painful sacrifice and quiet, unwavering belief.

More than just a game

Yet to describe hurling as being merely just a simple sport would be to miss almost entirely the far deeper point of what it genuinely represents to so very many people right across the whole of the island. It is, in a very real and genuinely profound sense, a living thread that connects the busy present day directly back to a distant and almost mythical past, binding whole communities tightly and warmly together across the passing generations.

There is also a wonderfully thriving and hugely popular version of the very same game that is played by women, and which already counts well over one hundred thousand enthusiastic participants right around the globe. As this ancient and endlessly thrilling old pastime continues to quietly captivate brand new audiences, both at home and increasingly abroad, its remarkable future now looks every bit as bright as its long and proud history.