I have Dish Network and for the last several weeks they have been hyping a sport called Irish football. It uses what looks like a soccerball, seems a lot like Austrailian football where they bounce the ball every couple of yards and are able to kick it through goal posts form anywhere on the field. Now all I know about the sport is from a couple of commercial blurbs, but is this an important sport? The commercials make it seem like it is the biggest sport in all of Ireland. I have never heard of Irish football, but was under the impression that Ireland used ‘football’ to mean the game of what I think of as soccer.
it is quite huge in Irland, it’s their national sport IIRC. i used to play myself while i was living in austrailia. Once a year the Irish play a semi converted version mixing the Gaelic and Aussie Rules games together, it draws huge crowds.
It’s one hell of a fun game to play too.
if u’ve got any Questions about it i’d be glad to answer them. Well, if i know the answers…
I’m just curious about the format of the game. I know American football and soccer very well. I have a fairly good knowledge of Rugby, and have watched Aussie football several times on TV, enough to get the gist of it, if not the subtleties. But Irish Football intrigued me a lot because of a game my high school gym teacher had us play called ‘handball’ which he said came from Sweden, which played a fair amount like what I saw of Irish football, except the goal posts. I’m just curious, and was wondering what the similarities of those game are.
Irish football or Gaelic Football to give it’s real name is indeed a very popular sport here.
This is very well timed as tommorow is the All Ireland final between Kerry and Galway.
The game is like Aussie Rules (which is a variation of Gaelic football). The goals are H shaped and scoring is done in both points and goals. If you get the ball over the crossbar and between the posts you score a point and a goal is scored if you put the ball into the netted area under the cross bar and between the posts.
A goal is worth 3 points so the scoring is given in the following format * goals - points * eg. 0-3 is the same score as 1-0 .
As mentioned there are compromised rules games between Aussie Rules and Gaelic Football. A spherical ball is used ala Gaelic Fottball (the Aussie’s use a oval one).
You can only carry the ball for 3steps with out bouncing it or dropping it to you foot and kicking it back to your hand.
The game is a joy to look at live as it’s very fast and quite high scoring. It is also a very physical game with a lot of contact.
Here’s a link the the GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association) http://www.gaa.ie/
and a link to the rules. http://www.compapp.dcu.ie/GAA/frules.html .
If you bump this on Monday (remembering time difference) TwistofFate should give you more info. as he was closely linked to the game for years.
Scores are usually scored by kicking the ball(but can be scaored with the hand), sometimes from a very far distance away, unlike Olympic handball where as the name suggests the players can only use your hand.
We also have a game called handball but think squash/racket ball(?) without a racket.
The pitch is roughly the same size as a soccer pitch.
Of course, the Paddies only made that shit up because they couldn’t beat the Dutch at normal football 
:rolleyes:
Hey! Is that the best you can do? FWIW, I love Gaelic. Fun to watch.
Coldie, if recent history is anything to go by the Dutch can’t beat the Paddies either!
Should be a good final, it’s already buzzing in my part of town (right by the train station that serves the West of the country). I think I’m going to cheer for Galway if only to keep those dreadful Kerry accents quiet tonight 
It’s about all I’m up to at the moment. I’m up for the last 36hrs and still counting.
Glad you like it. Us Paddies probably wouldn’t be able to compete with the Dutch at your national sport, canal jumping
As you would expect, we Aussies get saturation coverage of our game during the winter, hence any chance of seeing Gaelic football is nonexistant (unfortunately). But I have watched a few games of what is termed “international rules” test matches played bewteen the All Ireland league and the Australian Football League. It’s intersting to note how each side handles the ball completely differently their opponents.
Incidentally, I have seen one or two snippets from Hurling, which appears to the ininformed viewer about as anarchic as Aussie rules appears to you guys. And i noticed that some of the skills and the genral approach were not dissimilar to Gaelic football. Anyone want to make comment on that?
Yojimbo (I’m ignoring ruadh for now ;)), you’re pretty close there. In Friesland, there’s a traditional sport called Fierljeppen, which is Frysian for “Leaping Far”. Click here to see more info and a picture of a very high ljep.
Then there’s Korfbal, a basketball-like sport which is played by mixed teams. The question is: do they shower mixed too? Guess not, since most teams are from our own Bible Belt region
And last but not least, there’s a Dutch petanque-like game called Klootschieten, which literaly means “shooting nuts”. Yes, those nuts. Although the game actually uses iron balls
It’s played in the utter east of the country.
Here, in the ol’ Metropolitan area, we restrict our games to alcohol intake and substance abuses of various nature 
Gaelic Football and Hurling are very similar except for the fact that in hurling you’ve got a madman running at you with a big hurl at the ready(for Americans think of guy running at you with a hockey stick and swinging it at head height).
It’s said that hurling is the fastest ball game in the world. I don’t know if this is true but it must be one of the most exciting.
The skill of the players never fails to blow my mind. They pluck the ball which about the size of a tennis ball out of the air. Then run down the pitch balancing it on their hurl while fending off blows pushes and tackles from other players and then blast the ball over the bar.
I love looking at all the players getting interviewed. A lot of the do not have any front teeth.
btw Coldie thx for the canal vaulting link. You should have a look at this thread as I brought it up only last night and you willbe able the add to it or correct me.
a very exciting game especially the last 10 minutes, Galway coming back from what was looking in the early stages to be a whopper of a humiliation.
yojimbo how come the Galway jerseys don’t have Gaillimh on the back?
So, I take it that the All-Ireland Final was a draw? I guess there’s no provision for extra time in Gaelic football.
yojimbo, the fastest ball sport in the world is jai alai (in Spanish pelota). It’s like court handball, except the ball is made of very hard rubber, and the players wear big baskets (“canastas”) on their arms. Ball speeds can reach up to 178 mph. Despite watching and reading about the game, I still have little idea of how it’s played, other than that it’s a good idea not to get hit in the head by the ball 
And on Aussie Rules: No one is going to convince me that the rules weren’t drawn up by a few drunk guys in a bar.
“Tell yer what, Bruce, let’s make a new sport out of Gaelic football. We’ll play it on a cricket ground! And use rugby balls! And since it’s beyond our capacity to make H-shaped crossbars, we’ll put up two sticks either side of the goal posts. If you just miss the goal posts, we’ll call it a ‘behind,’ har har! And for refs, we’ll just take a couple of cricket umpires and give them two white flags to wave around!”
“Crackin’ game, Bruce!”
Nope. There’ll be a replay in two weeks time… the same day, I believe, as the Portugal-Ireland Euro qualifier.
This will be one hell of a hungover country the day after that
So, after the replay, there’ll be drinking. And, if there’s a second replay, there’ll be more drinking. And, if there’s a third replay…
I think I’m going to withdraw all the money I have from the bank and bet on another draw.
Thanks yojimbo. Unfortunately, as much as these uniquely Irish games intrigue me, I’m not going to see too many of them Down Under. Even gridiron is of minor interest in this part of the world.
And Duke, when those drunk guys finished with football, they emigrated to England and took over the MCC. English cricket has been on a downhill slide ever since…
Seriously Duke the rules for Australian football were codified (the origins of the game are obscure, current thinking is that it was adapted from an Aboriginal game) to keep cricketers fit during the off-season.
ahh, at last, a subject I can actually give the straight dope on.
Duke, Jai Alai is only that fast because it played on a relatively small court. kinetic energy will build up and the speeds will increase.
In Hurling, the ball travels long distances in a very short period of time. Its safe to assume that the speeds of the Sliotar easily can exceed 110kmph and even 130kmph, but would average at about 100kmph.
There is nothing elastic about a sliotar, whist is basically a small stuffed leather ball, consisting of 2 figure of 8 patches sewn together with a raised edge leather rind. Great for hitting long distances but not pleasant to recieve in the face at 100kmph.
Although wearing protection is advised, the majority of hurlers play without helmets. Some even without shin protection. These truly are tough men. Stupid men, but tough. As for football, protection is being able to raise a fist.
BTW, a cup is what you win in this game, not something you wear.
The International Rules are absolutely brilliant. It has something for everyone. Great atmosphere for the kids, great skill for the purists, and a great fight at the end of period hooter for the Drunken Rabble to encourage.
As for the Game yesterday, It was good, but as usual, injury time was trown out the window as the ref called time at a great oppertunity for the GAA.
The only problem now is the Replay will be the day before the international rules match against the Bruces.
I know what match I’ll be going to see!