Obsession with hurling export is a nonsense
A FROTHY press release has announced details of the Fenway Hurling Classic and Irish Festival, taking place in Boston in November.
It will involve four counties playing hurling according to Super 11 rules, which, if you didn’t know, ‘were specifically designed by the GAA and GPA to allow hurling be played in stadiums around the world which may not be big enough to accommodate a full size GAA pitch’.
You might recall the first Fenway Classic in 2015, a silly gimmick between Dublin and Galway marred by a brawl.
The farrago is extended to four teams this year, and we are no closer to knowing what the point of all this nonsense is. It is a GPA initiative, and one with which the GAA has no business involving themselves.
However, there is a great weakness within the association for the ludicrous notion that hurling is a game by which the rest of the world is waiting to be smitten, just as soon as they discover it.
This theory is rather challenged by the fact that most counties on this island don’t prioritise hurling, so why Americans should isn’t quite clear.
There was a past president of the GAA who once entertained the ridiculous idea that hurling could be an Olympic sport sometime.
This is the daftness informing illconceived jaunts like the forthcoming trip to Boston.