Last summer, our favorite publican Patrick took us to a youth hurling GAA game in Timoleague, West Cork.
If you’re not familiar with hurling, I’ll spare you the rules (but if you’re wondering: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurling). Just know that it is an intensely kinetic and physical sport. The only mainstream sport that comes close to the level of violence is ice hockey. I took these photos of a youth league GAA game, I think it was U16 but take note on how old these kids look when they play it.
The game, as you can see from the title, was from a game where Ibane (Barryroe Parrish + Timoleague Parrish) hosted Charleville, from the other side of County Cork. Timoleague is one of the more beautiful places on the planet, and in some of the photos you can see the estuary flowing from the hills in Barryroe towards Clonalilty.
We’ve never been to Charleville, but their cheese is fantastic, and the people cheering for ‘Charlie’ were nice.
Didn’t know any of the players, but my buddy Big Dave told me to watch out for his cousin, #14. Kid could play. You can see in the montage below the boy is a second half player, scoring most of Ibane’s points.
We saw #14’s father in the crowd, and he the publican had a chat. #14’s father is a fisherman who runs a phenomenal chip truck in between the Anchor Bar and the Pier House in Courtmac. Best cuisine in West Cork. Didn’t get a photo of him, but he had the same expression every father has when his child is excelling in a competition.
As you can see, it was a well fought duel. The boys from both sides of the county left it all on the field.
Alas, the visitors prevail by one goal, 2-21 v 1-21
