Fogarty Forum: Ash hurley will soon be an artefact
A At Star Kilkenny Jenkinstown, Cardy/sportsfile Ramsey Art: Hurl Bandsaw Stephen In The Shapes Dowling With The Hurley Picture:
The ash dieback crisis troubling hurley manufacturing reached the pages of last month.
Their London-based journalist Megan Specia travelled to Clare and Limerick. In the former, she interviewed hurley maker Seán Torpey whose family business have been leading the bamboo revolution as ash supplies wilt.
She also spoke to Clare forward David Fitzgerald about his use of a versatile wood more commonly associated with scaffolding in Asian countries and being a panda bear’s choice of food. “There’s no difference,” said the Inagh-Kilnamona man. “If anything, from my point of view, it’s a positive, because it’s more consistent.”
It’s estimated nine hurlers including Fitzgerald, John Conlon and Seadna Morey used bamboo hurleys in July’s All-Ireland final. The trio advertise Torpey’s “Bambú” hurley as does Limerick’s David Reidy.
This past summer, Reidy’s team-mate Séamus Flanagan spoke of its appeal too – “I love the bamboo because it's the very same weight always. It's not handmade at all, it's only hand finished. So when you pick up one, it's the exact same as the other.”
However, Flanagan and Reidy’s team-mate Seán Finn wasn’t as impressed, as he told Specia: “I’m using the ash for give or take 20 years. I never really warmed to the bamboo.”
There is enough ash around for Finn to have that choice for the rest of his career but future generations aren’t going to be so fortunate. The timber will actually have to be spared.
In August, this newspaper spoke to two hurley makers in Cork and Kilkenny about the challenges presented by the ash dieback. “I cut my own ash,” said Piltown man Aidan Falconer, “and I can see how bad the situation is every time I go into the forest.”
In her piece, Specia spoke to Limerick man John Reardon who started planting 20,000 trees in Caherconlish in 1998. What he has been left with he describes as “a tree graveyard”. He bemoaned: “It’s over, we are finished as far as hurleys are concerned. If I was a crying sort of person, I would be in tears.”
The ash is dying. For hurling, it is a downright shame but it is for Ireland too given the tree’s treasured placed in Irish folklore and history. It was often thought the tree had magical qualities and was a symbol of fertile land. Twigs of it were used to ward away fairies from milk churns and cows. In The War of Independence 110 years ago, Irish Volunteers drilled with ash hurleys.
This past weekend, Lady Gaga revealed on that she mediated to the movie that featured co-guest Colin Farrell. “I think it’s actually the tone of the film,” she explained.
Far be it from this humble column to advise a megastar how to find her tranquillity but there are few sounds more quintessentially Irish and as therapeutic as that of a sliotar’s leather meeting ash. Peace comes in the purity of a puck.
But there’s the excitement of striking too. In his eulogy to his legendary team-mate Christy Ring, Jack Lynch spoke of him being remembered “as long as young men swing their camáns for the sheer thrill of the tingle in their fingers of the impact of ash on leather”.
Neither the bamboo hurley nor the synthetic sliotar, for all their merits, provides that sort of sensory satisfaction or accomplishment. They may very well be in the future but their authenticity is fledgling. Right now, it don’t mean a thing, if it ain’t got that swing.
As 11 and 12-year-olds, our sixth class teacher Séamie O’Neill, brother of former Tipperary coach Paudie, advised us to care and do everything with our hurleys. Going to the shops? Bring it. Walking to school? Take it. Going to bed? Sleep with it.
The way it’s going, we could be putting them in deposit boxes or buying them in bulk to mothball and criminally unplay so that family members down the line can see and experience what the game was really like.
The ash hurley is sadly going the way of the hickory golf club. A piece of art will become an artefact. An indelible sight and sound of Irish culture that is supposedly UNESCO-protected will become a thing of the past.
The inevitable can be delayed, of course. Coillte can make available their ash trees to hurley makers so this generation and the next can continue to enjoy and appreciate the genuine beauty of a hurley. But their possession of those stockpiles are held ever so dearly. In every sense of the word.
Don’t expect hurley makers to be mentioned in today’s budget either. Their craft is too small and too niche to be mentioned but they represent a fundamental yet dwindling part of our identity. An attempt to safeguard them would be a nod to the past as it would be to the future.
john.fogarty@examiner.ie
Is it just coincidence or is a county’s number of senior inter-county referees inversely proportional to their success at senior level?
The thought crossed our mind reading this past weekend’s Tipperary hurling championships’ semi-final match programme, which listed just how strong their representation is at the highest grade of the game.
“Tipperary is currently very well served by the high standard of its referees,” read the snippet. “In the senior season to date, 13 referees have taken charge of the 30 games played.”
Of that baker’s dozen, two were on this past season’s inter-county championship panel – Kevin Jordan and Michael Kennedy. Conor Doyle is an up-and-coming match official while Fergal Horgan, who took charge of two Tipperary SHC matches in 2024, was the game’s leading referee before he stepped away from senior inter-county last year.
Following in a line from Horgan, Johnny Ryan, Seamus Roche, Willie Barrett and John Moloney before them, the county appear to have developed another strong batch of match officials but such riches rarely occur at the same time as success for the senior hurlers.
This year, Johnny Murphy was the first Limerick man to referee an All-Ireland SHC final since Pat O’Connor in 2001. Kilkenny haven’t had a man in the middle on hurling’s biggest day in 40 years when Paschal Long was in charge.
A Cork man has been in charge of three All-Ireland finals since the county last annexed the Liam MacCarthy Cup. This year’s victors Clare haven’t provided an All-Ireland SHC final since Mick Slattery in 1973 while Galway’s wait goes further back to Aubrey Higgins in '64.
In football, Kerry’s last All-Ireland SFC final appointment was Tommy Sugrue in 1994 and Dublin haven’t had one since Paul Kelly in ’71. PJ McGrath was Mayo's previous in 1982 and kingpins Armagh’s only final day referee was Hugh Duggan in ’79.
Referees are indispensable but the history books would show their progress isn’t mirrored by their teams.
Just as John Mullane is still remembered fondly 20 years on for readily doing the time having done the crime, Wexford’s Oulart-the-Ballagh should be acknowledged for making their point without throwing the senior county championship into disarray.
Second to Rathnure in the all-time senior champions list, they lost to Rapparees in last month’s preliminary quarter-final whose player Floyd Murphy was shown a second yellow card with a little less than 10 minutes to go but didn’t leave the field.
Oulart-the-Ballagh now face a relegation play-off but they chose not to pursue an objection against the result having initially tabled one.
Part of their statement read: “While understanding mistakes can be made by players and officials we feel that this is unacceptable to brush them under the carpet. We were the victims of this error, but other players and clubs could pay the price in the future if it continues. Oulart the Ballagh wish Rapparees all the best in the rest of the Wexford SHC.”
The home club of former stars like Martin Storey and Liam Dunne and current county senior hurling manager Keith Rossiter, Oulart-the-Ballagh have shown a touch of class in making their point without bringing the competition to a halt, which they would be entitled to do. Two of Rapparees’ goals in the eight-point win came in the closing minutes.
Credit to the club for realising the sport is about more than itself.