Hurling in The United States

It always seemed that gaelic football was the more likely of the gaelic games to become widely played worldwide, however in recent years hurling has gained a foothold in the United States, increasingly common among non Irish communities, where players are attracted by the skill and physicality of a game that they say has it all.

Hurling has featured in North America since reports in the late 1700s reported matches between rival Irish immigrants, with the occasional row breaking out among players and partisans!

At the start of the twentieth century there were about a dozen American hurling clubs. Indeed in 1910 a group of American hurlers toured Ireland and in the 1930s teams from the States played in the Tailteann Games.

Hurling is now spreading beyond the Irish communities in the United States with some success. More and more unfamiliar, yet distinctively Irish hurling and gaelic football jerseys are appearing on the O’Neills website. There is a thriving interest among Irish American communities for what they describe as the Warrior Game.

Increasingly more common is the sight of US citizens with no Irish connection gathering to play hurling on a communal basis in public parks. The interest is typically fired one or two individuals who have encountered the game, perhaps on a trip to Ireland or stumbled upon it in a late night cable television show. Sparked by curiosity and interest, a new hurling club is born. For obvious reasons, it has an enduring appeal to newcomers.

The Milwaukee Hurling Club. A Beacon

One of the greatest examples of this is the Milwaukee Hurling Club, where the interest in the game was fired by Dave Olsen who has no family Irish roots and no prior Irish connection. This year, 2015 will mark the 20th anniversary of the Milwaukee Hurling Club.  The MHC is the largest hurling club in America.  It is unique in that it is primarily made up of players who are American-born and not native to the sport. Players of all levels are welcome to join. The club’s policy is to train players of all ages and ability together. All players are guaranteed a minim of 45 minutes games time every weekend.

The Milwaukee hurling club has developed a number of innovations, they introduced compulsory hurling helmets before the rule was adopted by the GAA; they use two referees in games. In recognition of his efforts in promoting the game of hurling, Dave Olsen received the GAA Presidents Award.

Denis O’Brien, author of Hurling USA wrote: “American players can’t get enough of hurling. It is the game they were always meant to play.”

Mac Tíre – The Barley House Wolves

Hurling in the United States has been adopted by Barley House Wolves  - the ‘Mac Tíre” - a team of combat veterans from the New Hampshire Army National Guard formed in 2006 as a way to stay connected as they adjusted to life post combat. The club’s origins date from a group of officers watching a game of hurling on television during a flight stopover in Shannon airport. The establishment of the hurling club has resulted in images sent home of US troops hurling up a desert storm as they puc around in the sands of Iraq.

United States Collegiate Hurling

Hurling has increasingly gained a foothold among US colleges. It doesn’t have the following of College football or the cachet of Colleges basketball and possibly never will. But following the first collegiate hurling match in the United States in 2009 between Stanford University and UC Berkeley, the national collegiate hurling championship was established in 2011 - their equivalent of the Fitzgibbon Cup.

A browse of the US section of the O’Neills website reveals a whole battery of US hurling clubs we probably never knew even existed. Places like Hampton Roads Hurling Club and the Hurling Club of Madison.

The founding fathers of the GAA created the organization to preserve and promote Irish pastimes. It seems that hurling, one of the most distinctively Irish games is gradually gaining a foothold far from Thurles, Nowlan Park and the Glens of Antrim.

Hurling Away in America

Hurling Accessories

Last thing the night before departure, first thing into the bag. The O’Neills hurling jersey, the hurley, the hurling helmet and maybe a sliotar or two. Every foreign field can become a hurling pitch with the right equipment.

If you were already connected with a club in the States or they knew you well, maybe you were there the year before, the lads hurling in America might have asked you to bring out  a bag of O’Neills sliotars, split new; or a bale of hurleys or better still maybe a bag of new O’Neills jerseys.

A hurling club in the States wasn’t a real hurling team until it was kitted out in the real O’Neills set of jerseys with the familiar badge and the GAA symbol. The summer hurler would arrive back for the end of season games with a shiny new hurling shirt never before seen around the club. The badge would be different, a hurling crest on it and an unfamiliar name.

Shipping Jerseys to the States

Of course today O’Neills are regularly shipping jerseys out to teams in the States. There are the usual longstanding customers in the hurling and gaelic football heartlands in New York, Boston, Chicago and Philly.

The GAA is strong in these Irish American cities, but increasingly it has become popular with American public in places like Milwaukee, Indianapolis, New Hampshire and literally to native Americans in Missoula.

In these enclaves of Gaelic games, the game of hurling is gaining currency among the local populations who have stumbled upon it themselves without much Irish intervention. Typically they love the warrior element, the association with ancient Irish rites and rituals and the links with the legends of Cuchullain.

For us here in Ireland, hurling’s hurling. Shefflin calls it a day, so does JJ Delaney and Tommy Walsh; Davy Fitz calls it as he sees it; Ger Loughnane calls a spade a spade and we pass no remark. We call it hurling. But its interesting that half a world away hurling has caught the imagination of a whole new audience enthralled by the skill, the speed, the power and athleticism and the mysticism.

If you’re hurling away in the United States and you want to talk to us about your hurling needs, get in touch.