By Darragh Peter Murphy
Welcome to the centre of Ireland’s Hurling Belt, Ireland's Ancient East, an area stretching from the plains of Galway to Cork and Wexford, with Kilkenny as its beating heart.
Here, this ancient pursuit – the fastest field sport in the world – is a way of life. You could say that hurling is to Kilkenny what rugby is to New Zealand. The difference is even elite county hurlers don’t get paid, and must combine their vocation with a regular job (and club duties!).
Gaelic football and hurling
Alone among Ireland’s 32 counties, Kilkenny does not have a senior Gaelic Football team. Football is an after-thought to the very serious business of schooling generations in the arts of the ash stick. And school them they do. Under Brian Cody (an actual schoolteacher), Kilkenny – The Cats – have been the pre-eminent team in hurling’s modern era, maybe the greatest of all time.
Hurling is hugely popular in Ireland’s Ancient East
In the years 2000-2015, Kilkenny won 11 All-Ireland hurling finals, including four in a row. They are the most successful team in hurling history and make up, with Cork and Tipperary, the Big Three. Check them out.
Across the Suir lie their fierce rivals, Waterford. Nicknamed the Déise after an ancient tribe, they are enduring a long drought of All-Ireland success going back to 1959, and suffered a cruel near-miss in reaching the All-Ireland final in 2017. They did, however win the league in 2007 and 2015, and doubled up by winning the highly competitive Munster hurling title in 2015.
Proud hurling traditions
Wexford have their own proud hurling tradition, and were All-Ireland champions in 1996. These days the Yellowbellies are mere provincial hopefuls, last winning the Leinster title in 2004, although in the 2017 semi-finals they beat Kilkenny, a rare feat, and the sport is alive and well.
Wexford also field a competitive Gaelic Football team – as do Carlow, who bear the distinction of being named the ‘scallion-eaters’, a charming nickname stemming from the area’s 1800s onion industry. Carlow’s footballers had a good 2018, beating Louth and Kildare in the Leinster Football Championship. The previous year, they took Wexford’s scalp, before losing to a great Dublin side.
Gaelic football is the number one sport in Ireland’s Ancient East
Carlow’s hurling clubs also have their moments. In 2013, Mount Leinster Rangers won the Leinster Club Hurling Championship, beating Dublin superclub Ballyboden St Enda’s. They may be one of the smaller counties, but when it comes to Gaelic games, it’s clear that Carlow know their onions.
Of course, there are other sports apart from hurling or football. Soccer (association football) remains the most popular participatory sport in Ireland, and is most visible in the cities and towns, not least at the Regional Sports Ground, home to Waterford FC, winners of the 2017 First Division title, for which supporter-owned Wexford FC also competes.
Rugby remains a minority pursuit. Although there are five rugby clubs in Wexford and two in Carlow, there are just one each in Kilkenny and Waterford. By way of comparison, there are 43 GAA clubs (and 12 adult ladies soccer teams) in Kilkenny alone, and around 40 soccer clubs in the county.
Read more about Ireland’s Ancient East
