Sports

Get ready for some football.

The Philadelphia GAA is playing its first full season on the beautiful new fields in Limerick, PA
There are a slew of games this weekend. Set your GPS for 485 Longview Rd. and BYO sunscreen.

Saturday Football

3 PM Junior B Championship, Kevin Barry’s Vs. St. Patrick’s
4:30 PM Senior Championship, Pittsburgh Vs. Young Irelands
6 PM Senior Championship, Kevin Barrys vs. St. Patrick’s

Sunday Hurling
1 PM Hurling Championship, Allentown Hibernians Vs. Na Toraidhe

From left: Justin Budich, Kate Bartnik, Brian Sullivan, Mauricio Magaña

Twilight is closing in on a scrubby athletic field toward the rear of Philadelphia’s Northeast High School. Twenty or so young men—and two women—are racing back and forth, wielding what look like canoe paddles in one hand, and slapping a ball back and forth with it. Occasionally, one of those balls goes sailing over a high chain-link fence into traffic on Algon Avenue.

What you’re looking at is mayhem, with a fair amount of body contact—but still, there’s clearly a rhythm and structure to it.

This moderately anarchic activity is hurling, an ancient Gaelic game transported to the United States by Irish immigrants. By some accounts, Irishmen have been playing some version of hurling for more than 3,000 years. The sport is now drawing steadily increasing numbers of American players.

One of them is MossRehab physical therapist Brian Sullivan. A few other Moss physical therapists are out there on the field, too, persuaded by him that playing this obscure Gaelic sport would be a good idea.

It’s always seemed like a pretty good idea to Sullivan, a graduate of Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania, who hails from Pittsburgh. He has been with MossRehab for two years. Sullivan’s first exposure to hurling came during a trip to Ireland in the spring of 2010, when he saw his first hurling match.  “That was how I found out that there even was a sport called hurling.”

He was even more surprised when he returned to the United States and, while attending a Pittsburgh-area Irish festival, saw the game being played on U.S. soil. He was incredulous. “I thought: Wait … this is actually happening in America?”

Sullivan had played organized baseball and soccer, and the sheer athleticism of hurling appealed to him, along with the fact that the game combined aspects of many other sports—field hockey, lacrosse, and even baseball—so he joined the local club in Pittsburgh. In spite of the game’s complexity—and perhaps because of it—Sullivan was hooked right from the start.

“It’s just a great game,” he says. “I just wanted to do it.”

So what is hurling? We’ve written about it many times before, but for the benefit of you Gaelic athletic newbies, hurling is said to be the fast-moving game on grass. No one who has ever watched it would dispute the point. It’s also one of the most physical. Hurling has been described as hockey mixed with murder. Maybe that’s a bit of Hibernian hyperbole, but neither is hurling croquet.

Here are the basics:

Hurling is played with a flat-bladed bat called a hurley, and a ball, roughly the size and weight of an American baseball, called a sliotar. (That’s a word from Irish Gaelic, pronounced “slitter.”)

The object of the game is for players to use the hurley to smack the sliotar either into a field hockey-like net for three points, or between two American football-style goalposts on either side of the net for one point.

There are a lot of ways players can move the sliotar down the field. They can hit it in the air, carry it briefly in their hand or toss it to one of their teammates, knock it about along the ground, or balance it on the blade of the hurley and run like the dickens toward the opponent’s goal. This last move, if you’ve ever seen it, seems to defy the laws of gravity.

Purists will tell you it’s all more nuanced than that, but those are the broad outlines.

Over time, for Sullivan hurling became not just a hobby, but a passion.

After graduation, when it came time to explore various cities in their quest for work and a nice place to live, Sullivan informed his wife Michelle that he had but one condition. “My one stipulation was that I’ll move wherever you want,” he recalls telling Michelle, “but they have to have a hurling team.”

Happily, Philadelphia has a hurling team—the Philadelphia Hurling Club—and it has MossRehab, part of the Einstein Healthcare Network, one of the nation’s premier rehabilitation facilities. So they moved to Philly.

Sullivan took to bringing his hurley and a ball along to work at his new job to practice out on the lawn at lunchtime near Moss’s facility on West Tabor Road in North Philadelphia. Co-workers soon became curious. “They’d ask, ‘What are you doing with this weird little stick?’” In time, he’d persuaded four other therapists to find out for themselves.

He says the hurley and ball also have uses for some of his patients, since they’re good for balance and eye-hand coordination. Balancing a sliotar on the end of the hurley, he laughs, “is like balancing an egg on a spoon.”

Sullivan’s involvement in Philadelphia hurling proved to have a side benefit, also relating to Einstein and to the Irish: specifically, helping to determine the carrier rate of Tay-Sachs disease among people of Irish descent. Dr. Adele Schneider, director of Clinical Genetics at Einstein Medical Center Philadelphia, has been managing the study.

Tay-Sachs is an inherited neurodegenerative disease that afflicts a very small percentage of infants. If both parents carry the gene, they can pass it along to their children. (The parents are unaffected by the disease.) Children with Tay-Sachs typically do not survive past their fifth birthday.

Most people, if they have heard of Tay-Sachs at all, probably associate the disease with people of eastern European Jewish descent—and indeed, this group is most affected. But other ethnic groups have a higher-than-average carrier rate—for example, French-Canadians, Cajuns and the Amish. Recent research by Dr. Schneider strongly suggests that people of Irish descent also might have a higher carrier rate.

Sullivan heard about the study, and assisted in raising its profile in the local Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) community. A Tay-Sachs study banner hangs from the fence at the GAA’s new fields in Limerick, and representatives of the Genetics Division will be conducting tests this Sunday during the weekly games.

“He (Sullivan) came to our St. Patrick’s Day testing at Einstein and brought his hurley,” says Licensed Genetic Counselor Amybeth Weaver, MS, CGC. “He and Kerry O’Connor (Einstein senior communications manager), who was there, talked about it. Nothing happened for a month or two. Then Kerry forwarded an e-mail from Brian to us, saying they (the GAA) were looking for sponsors for their field.”

It seemed like a good idea, so the National Tay-Sachs & Allied Diseases Association of Delaware Valley, which funds the study, became a sponsor.

Weaver is looking forward to this weekend’s games in particular.

“There are three games scheduled,” she says. “ Brian thought this would be a good Irish draw, and maybe we’d get some folks who are eligible to participate in the study.” (Learn more here.)

Sullivan is grateful that he was able to connect his love of all things Irish to the study—and all because of one crazy game that, for him, is incredibly fulfilling on so many levels. “You get to represent your city,” he says. “It brings in your Irish heritage, which I’m very proud of. It brings in aspects of so many sports, and athletes can relate their sport to it. To me, hurling is the best sport out there.”

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Not a lot of action on this little guy’s end of the field.

None of the games counted in official standings of any sort.

So what was the point of the Delco Gaels Blitz, a day of Irish football and hurling played under the blazing sun on the athletic fields of Cardinal O’Hara High School last Sunday?

Probably nothing less than grooming the next generation of Philadelphia’s Gaelic athletes. And when it comes to the future of Gaelic games in the United States, there’s probably nothing more important.

Out on the artificial turf of the football field, the little kids held sway. While the big kids played on adjoining fields, some of the small girls and boys donned helmets and swung away with their hurling sticks—the really little ones played with plastic hurleys—at a ball that often seemed to elude a lot of them. Others hurtled up and down the field chasing a football.

On the sidelines, parents an coaches shouted encouragement: “Great kick, Brennan!” “Good goal, Siobhan!” (I’m making up the names, but trust me, the field was filled with Irish-sounding names.)

Some of the kids clearly knew what they were about—especially the footballers—and in some of the games they were evenly matched. There was some terrific action.

You could see that the future was in good hands.

We spent the afternoon slathering on sunscreen and slugging back water like everyone else. Here are some pictures from a really fun day.

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And, technically, one young woman.

We dropped by Northeast High School a week ago to take in a practice of the Na Tóraidhe Philadelphia Hurling Club. As it happened, it was unseasonably cold, and the grass was soaking. (So were my sneakers and jeans.)

None of which stopped our hurlers, who came off the field soaked in sweat, regardless of the temperature. It’s the season for Gaelic Athletics in Philly, and we thought it’d be good to show you what a shirts-and-skins (OK, they were all wearing shirts) practice looks like. What it looks like is every bit as rough and tumble as what you’d see in a game.

You’ll also note that a lot of the photos are on the dark side. It’s because the players kept playing until it was just about too dark to see the ball.

Note: They’re always looking for members, regardless of age or gender. Details.

Here ya go.

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Super Bowl? What’s the Super Bowl compared to a match-up between Glasgow’s legendary Celtic Football Club and the Rangers? Now, that’s super.

OK, so it’s the Sevco Rangers, not quite the Rangers team that has been Celtic’s nemesis since the dawn of time, but no matter. It’s a big deal. And if you don’t think so, show up at the Plough and Stars in Old City on Sunday, February 1, at 8:30 in the morning. The game will start at 1:30 in Scotland, so Celtic fans will be up early.

And thanks to the ardent Philly fan group, the 2nd Street Plough Bhoys CSC, there will be a lot of them. A lot, as in hundreds. And not just on Sunday, when the game will be displayed on a giant screen, but the whole weekend, in an event billed as the East Coast Celtic Supporters’ Féile. Féile is a Gaelic word meaning “festival,” but in this case the word seems somehow insufficient.

“This place will be bouncing from Friday through the whole weekend,” said Seamus Cummins, Plough Bhoys spokesman, chatting over beers at the Plough last Sunday along with several other members of the club. “This is our second year. Last year, we had 300, and they came from everywhere. This place was rocking.”

Fellow Plough Bhoy Mairtin O’Braidaigh still seems surprised at that year’s turnout. “We thought we’d bring in people from New York,” he said. Somehow or other members of clubs from around the country came. And from out of the country, too, including Scotland. “We had people drive down from Canada. They left at 4 a.m., and arrived here at 6 p.m. Some people, we didn’t even know were coming. They just came.”

Some of those who joined in the Celtic mania didn’t know that’s what they were joining. Plough Bhoy William “Fitz” Fitzgerald remembers. “People came in off the street, and they were just having a great time. There was just laughter all the time.”

Cummins expects even more fans this time around.

“We expect people to come from Ontario,” he said, “and Detroit, Athens, Ga., the Bronx, Boston, North Jersey, D.C., South Carolina, and Ohio. There will be people who will cross the Atlantic. We call it the Celtic family … and it really is a family.”

One of the highlights of this year, he said, is the premiere of “The Asterisk Years,” a film by author Paul Larkin, documenting the alleged decade-long financial shenanigans by the Rangers organization that many insist cheated Celtic out of titles.

(Highlights of the weekend’s schedule is below.)

The Plough Bhoys are thrilled that this year’s Féile just happens to coincide with a Celtic-Rangers match-up.

“We set this date back in June or July,” Cummins said with something approaching glee in his voice. “We thought the game was going to be against Kilmarnock, just a regular game. But the stars aligned, and we drew our ancient rival. This will be the first time we’ve played a team named the Rangers in three years. We should give them a right hammering. That’ll really kick the party into overdrive.”

Some party it will be.

And, oh, yeah, if you’re interested, there’s some inconsequential little American football game later in the day.

Friday, January 30
4-6 p.m. – The welcoming of the Celtic Family. Celtic Supporters from all over North America will begin to arrive for the Féile weekend. Please bring your club’s banner to be proudly hung in the pub.
7 p.m. – Live Irish/Celtic Music by Jamison’s, John O’Callaghan

Saturday, January 31
11 a.m. – Blessing of the Celtic Family at the National An Gorta Mor Memorial by Father Edward Bradley
1 p.m. – The USA Premier of Paul Larkin’s, “The Asterisk Years”
2:30 p.m. – Q&A Following the film by Paul Larkin, Hosted by Graham Wilson of the The Beyond The Waves Celtic Show
4-7 p.m. – Live Irish/Celtic Music by Ardboe, County Tyrone’s own, Raymond Coleman
7-10 p.m. – Live Irish/Celtic Music by The Bogside Rogues

Sunday, February 1
8:30 a.m. – The first-ever meeting between Celtic & The *Rangers 2012 in the League Cup Semi-Final
12 p.m.  until Kick off of Super Bowl XLIX – Traditional Irish Music Session

Keep up to date on Twitter, official hash tag #celticphillyfeile15

It didn’t take long for players to become well acquainted with the field.

The leaders of Philadelphia’s Gaelic Athletic Association were always convinced it was going to happen.

On Saturday, after planning and tireless fund-raising for more than 10 years, the GAA’s long-awaited Limerick Field hosted its first games of football and hurling. They started at midday, and went on for hours, men’s teams, women’s teams, Irish football and hurling, all played with the usual intensity—and maybe a bit of pride of ownership.

This marks the GAA’s long-awaited departure from the athletic field at Cardinal Dougherty High School in the Olney section of Philadelphia, where the league has played for about 20 years.

Nothing against Dougherty, says Philly GAA President Sean Breen. “They were always very good to us. But a regulation field is what we needed.”

Sean Breen

In Ireland, hurling and football are played on fields a minimum of 130 to 145 meters long, and 80 to 90 meters wide. Rounded out, that would be roughly 140 yards by 85. The field at Dougherty is 130 by 65.

In the past, when out-of-town teams who played on regulation fields would face off against Philly teams, Breen says, “They’d be used to the bigger field, but the local boys wouldn’t.”

The new field, in the shadow of the Limerick cooling towers and the fluffy clouds of steam that hang over them, is nothing short of perfectly flat, with none of the ruts and holes the players contended with before. Even though the day started out rainy, the field was mostly dry by game time. Good drainage was an essential part of the planning for the new facility.

And this is just the start.

The 11 acre-property, Breen says, will have two fields and an 80- by 50-foot building, with four changing rooms, showers and a ballroom. The GAA will rent out the ballroom for receptions and parties, which should defray the costs of the facility. All of this comes at some considerable expense, in the neighborhood of $2.5 million, much of which came from local fund-raising, with a considerable contribution from the Gaelic Athletic Association in Ireland. “That was a big help,” says Breen.

“We’ll have to keep raising money. There’s going to be a big golf outing in the spring, and we’re looking for a sponsor,” he says.

The showers and changing rooms in particular will offer a marked improvement over the field at Dougherty, where players changed in their cars in the parking lot, and under trees along the sidelines.

The North American GAA’s Gareth Fitzsimons was on hand for the opening games. The new facility, he says, is about more than football and hurling. “When this is completed, it can only help grow Irish culture here in Philly.”

And it’ll do a lot for the GAA in the States, too, he says.

“In the last 15 years, there’s been a big push to promote our games to Americans. Having a place you can call your own can only help promote the GAA, and it will give the GAA new life.”

We have more photos than you can shake a hurley at.

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