Italy played Ireland tonight, in Southern Italy, for the World Cup qualifying round. Italy had won every match in the round so far.
Robbie Keane scored in the 85th minute to tie the match, an incredible result against the reigning world champions.
This is not an April Fool!
We had a great day for sports on Sunday. By far the most thrilling event was our first GAA match in person — and better yet, at the national stadium, Croke Park! Here’s the link for a short slideshow of our day at Croker, with plenty of information in the descriptions:
Photos of Croke Park, 29 June 2008, on flickr
The match was County Dublin versus County Westmeath, in the semi-final of the Football Championship for the Irish province of Leinster. (more…)
Anita is leading a BBB&B tour of Corca Dhuibhne. She is showing Dingle how to have a good time, the Bugle way. (Rule 1: Food first, then fun.) As I tended to the maintenance of the B&B today, I heard far-away music reflected from the tall walls of my neighbourhood.
“Oh yes,” I thought, “today there’s a festival at Dublin Castle. That’s a long way for the sound to travel on such a windy day, though.” I finished my work in the afternoon and headed west to see the sights. (more…)
From the first impressions that I posted, you may think my answer is “yes.” I’d like to correct those first impressions. Hurling is not a violent sport, or at least, it is no less violent than other contact sports.
Tackling in hurling is highly regulated. There’s a reason why the participants wear little protective equipment — the referees strictly enforce the rules, and the way that fouls are penalized allows the referee to call a tackling foul without badly interrupting the pace of the game. My impression, from watching three matches, is that called fouls are much less disruptive than in soccer. And let’s not even talk about the persistent problems with foul-calling in American football and NBA basketball.
So don’t take the apparently-wild swinging of a wicked-looking stick (or “hurley”) as a sign of violence. Unlike lacrosse, there are few legal tackles that involve using one’s hurley against another’s body. And injuries are remarkably rare, especially when one considers that almost nobody plays hurling as a full-time job.
Yet it does look like a pre-historic battle. And it look maniacal, with its incredible speed and how often the best players lose the ball (or “sliotar”) and then sprint after the loose ball.
One point of clarification: I’m talking about the rules and the practices of the sport. One could argue that the way the game is played in the All-Ireland Championship leads to fistfights among players too often. One could draw a comparison with American ice hockey and say that the violence is integral to the sport. I admit that I sidestep that point entirely — in part because I’m hardly qualified to argue it.
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