8/19 -- Galway and Drive to Clifden

Our first stop today was a branch of the GAA - Gaelic Athletic Associaton -- founded in 1894 to revitalize interest in traditional Irish sports. Our focus today was hurling, a lacrosse-type game, in part because the All Ireland finals are being held at 3:30 today, featuring the teams from Galway and Limerick. These are totally amateur clubs and they compete as counties, typically based on the county you were born in, even if it means traveling a couple hours one way to practice. It is only in the last 8 years that helmets have started to be required.

The ball is a lot like a baseball, and can be caught with the hand, but not thrown - it must be batted sort of like volleyball, or hit with a wooden stick called a hurley that looks a lot like a flattened, oddly shaped baseball bat. After learning about a couple other sports, we donned helmets, armed ourselves with hurleys, and set off to get a clue about how to play. To say we were pretty hopeless is to be optimistic, but it was fun and no one got hurt, which is  more than you could say about the actual game.

These helmets are really unimpressive -- no padding, and
plenty of room for a hurley to do serious damage.

Out on the pitch, we try to learn very basic skills: how to
catch and throw, how to pick up the ball, etc.

 

This is Jim doing pretty well at one of the techniques for
lifting the ball from the ground. I was totally incompetent.

Our illustrious competetors: from the left: Jim, Michael, Brian
(the coach), Holly, Jim, Lynn (back), Candy (front), Jim, Tom,
Elizabeth, Tom, and Dan.

Then it was off the Galway City Center, where a central park had been turned into a village hurling-watching party with a jumbo-tron. We explored the environs and did a bit of shopping and exploring. 

Each banner represents one of the fourteen original merchant
families in Galway. One, who started the Connemara marble
concession nearly 200 years ago is still working it.

The main pedestrian mall and shopping area of Galway.

Above and below: St. Nicholas' Church,
where Christopher Columbus prayed in 1477.

The Spanish Gate, leading to the Latin Quarter.

In addition to shopping, we took a walk along the river, which leads to the harbor. The Atlantic Ocean ventures far into Ireland at the point, and the river was a relaxing place to walk.

Heron

Except for the head coloring, this looked gull-like.

Quite an elalborate gate to keep riverwalkers from straying
into where we don't belong.

We hopped back on the bus to drive 2 hours west to Clifden, our home for the next two nights. Once we were settled in our rooms, we met at the bar to watch the second half of the game (Holly said the first half was always boring), and were amazed to find the Galway, the favorites, were down 5 points to Limerick, who Holly was cheering on. One goalie got creamed and taken off the field with assistance, and Limerick held on for the win by one point.

Another Jim, Michael (our new bus driver), and
Holly watching the game

Five  more from our group at the bar watching raptly:
yet another Jim, Christine, one of the Toms, Julia, and
the other Tom glued to the green screen.