| GAA Shorts Calling all
Camogie Fans
Camogie is a game very like hurling which is played by girls and women.
The name comes from the Irish word camog which means stick with a crook
at the end of it.
The Camogie Association was set-up in 1904 and it is one of the largest
female sporting organisations in Ireland. Camogie teams use 15 players
and wear similar equipment to hurlers but use a slightly smaller sliotar.
The main difference in rules between camogie and hurling is that a camogie
player can handpass a goal whilst a hurler has to strike the sliotar with
his hurl to score three points.
In Britain camogie is mainly restricted to London and Birmingham, however
there are plans by the Camogie Association of Ireland to introduce the
sport to young people in schools with a view to getting more girls playing
the all-action sport.
Want to know more about camogie and find out where your nearest club is?
Check out the Camogie Association Of Ireland official website: www.camogie.ie
GAA Goes International
When Irish people went to other countries they took their national games
with them. Now Gaelic games are played in many different parts of the
world. There are now 350 GAA clubs outside Ireland.
Nearly 4,000 players are registered in North America. They play in 93
clubs in 26 different cities.
There are 50 clubs in New York and 13 in Canada.
Gaelic football has become very popular in Asia and it is played in
China, Hong Kong, Macau, Korea, Japan, Singapore and Tawian.
There are 54 GAA clubs in Australia and New Zealand.
There are plans to start Gaelic football clubs in the United Arab Emirates
(Dubai) and in Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and Thailand.
A European GAA County Board was set-up in 1999. there are now 17 European
clubs, from Finland to Spain. A Euro league is played across eight European
cities every year and is very popular.
Britain has the most extensive GAA set-up outside Ireland with over
100 GAA clubs . There are 38 universities and 120 schools playing GAA
in the UK.
Footballs Through the Ages
In the early days the Gaelic football was usually round and coloured brown.
But sometimes it was oval-shaped because balls were difficult to make.
The ball was made of animal skin with a pig’s bladder inside. When
the bladder was inflated the ball could be bounced.
The old brown ball used to get soaked in water and got bigger each time
you used it. It was difficult to catch when wet and heavier to kick. The
old football was made of 12 leather sections.
William Rock was known as the Custodian Of The Ball at Croke Park. His
job was to collect the balls for the matches on Friday before the game
and have them ready. On All-Ireland final days he wore a bowler hat and
presented the ball to the referee on the pitch. In wet weather the old
Gaelic footballs became very heavy from the rain and William threw in
a new ball every 25 minutes.
Did you know? A good coach makes sure that each child makes contact with
the ball 200 times during a well-planned training session. And in 1932
a white ball was introduced for the first time in an All-Ireland final. |
