Up With The Helmet!

Soon there will be a generation of hurlers and camogs going through their careers that won’t remember the bare headed player. Hard to believe but it's true.

In both games of course up until relatively recent times, helmets were unknown. Players regularly got split open playing the game which added to its allure for men and women alike.

It wasn’t until 1967 when the helmet made its debut. A lad by the name of Micheal Murphy came on as a second half sub for UCC in a Cork County Final wearing a motorcycle helmet prompting a few raised eyebrows amongst the 12,500 souls watching the game. Murphy had sustained a fractured skull and, wanting to play in the match, had the ingenious idea to wear a helmet for protection. Nothing wrong with that we can say through the mists of time.

At the second time of asking in 1968 UCC’s motion to the Cork County Convention led to the matter being considered at the National Congress. From then onwards, players’ headgear

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