The Buenos Aires Hurling Club

Sponge Bob

This is from a now deleted blog . Once Irish emigration to Argentina stopped 100 years ago and 2 world wars inhibited the supply of proper hurleys they converted the Argentina Hurling Club to a hockey club. From the stories of mayhem below I'd say they the emigrants may have been from Tipperary

http://irishgenealogyblog.wordpress.com/2010/02/16/hurlings-darker-side-made-it-to-argentina/

Hurling’s ‘darker side’ made it to Argentina







IN 1948, the hockey squad that represented Argentina in the London Olympics had five players from one club on the outskirts of the sprawling mass that is Buenos Aires. It was remarkable in itself that one club should manage such a healthy quotient for the national side, and more so that this outfit had come late to the top flight of hockey in that province. When you consider who they were however, and where their journey had taken them from, you can only wonder if you have the right bunch at all.
They were five strapping, tanned Latins, and they still beam out from pictures on the walls of their clubhouse: Tommy Wade, Tommy Quinn, Luis Scally, Billy Dolan and Tommy Scally. All Argentinian born and raised, all brought up with an identity rooted in another hemisphere and another world.
Their club was new to the big boys of Buenos Aires hockey because they were recent converts to the sport. Their previous incarnation, however, gave them a headstart in any game that involved stickwork. They were the boys of the Hurling Club.
It is a remarkable institution. The hurling may have long gone, but the name and the spirit remains. Its walls are covered with reminders of their past and the Irish names are everywhere.
The Irish presence in Argentina goes back to the arrival of the Spanish in the 18th century, but it was after the War of Independence in 1816 that those Irish who had been involved in the struggle encouraged more to follow and make a new life for themselves.
Initially the traffic was slow, but Longford and Westmeath proved willing suppliers. Argentina had twin attractions: a newly-independent state and lots of land. Other Irish moved there from North America and other countries in the sub continent, and by the close of the century they had flagged their presence in Argentina with the establishment of two newspapers; the Buenos Aires Standard and the Southern Cross. A raft of Irish organisations had been set up, including educational institutions such as Newman College which, some 100 years later, put one Felipe Contepomi through its gates.
It followed that the Irish would bring their games with them. Dickie MacAllister, the club treasurer and a fourth generation Irishman, takes up the story.
“The official story is like this: hurling was played in Buenos Aires in the late 1880s, 1890s, but in 1900 it was played in a certain way – it was the first official match between two teams. One of the teams was Buenos Aires Hurling Club, and the game, because of that match, began to grow and grow.
“Then the First World War slowed it down a little, but after the war it started to grow again. There were 20 teams in Buenos Aires at one time. In 1922, the Argentina Federation of Hurling was founded and the first president was Michael Ballesty. When the Second World War began the game stopped because we couldn’t get the hurleys. That was the problem. It was a pity.”
‘The incestuous nature of the hurling set up in Buenos Aires
led to an unacceptable incidence of violence’
They tried to grow the ash tree locally, but the climate meant it grew too fast, they reckoned, and the end product didn’t given them the combination of flexibility and strength needed in the sticks. In any case there was a feeling that the incestuous nature of the hurling set-up in Buenos Aires led to an unacceptable incidence of violence.
“The big shots now say that is was better to finish the hurling because, you know, each team was a family, a clan,” says MacAllister. “And so there was always fighting between them in the games. It was like a war. And after the matches they would all go to the same clubhouse because there was only one pitch, and after the match there was tea and dances and you would be told: ‘You can’t dance with a lady of the other team.’ If you do that there was another war! So some guys said the only way to keep all the people together was to stop hurling. That was a feeling.”
From then on hurling was seen only one day a year, purely as an exhibition event, but its loss was hockey’s gain. And they took to it fast, so fast in fact that they made the final of the first division the next year and never looked back. Rugby started up as well and today their grounds in Hurlingham – it was a coincidence that they moved from the city to a district so called – has rugby and hockey pitches and tennis courts as well as a swimming pool and bochas fields (like boules).
If that makes it sound like a country club, it isn’t. Far from it. “We have 1,200 members and more than 30 teams between rugby and hockey from the kids up to the adults, but that is not big by Argentine standards,” says their president David Ganly, a fourth generation Irishman who christened his eldest boy Liam. “There are clubs with thousands of members and many, many players, but this club is mostly family.”
It has the feel of a decent sized GAA club. In the foyer there is a map of Co Longford dated 1813, which predates the arrival of the royal canal and the railways, and was presented to the club by the Longford Historical Society. It features the one straight road from Longford to Edgeworthstown, the only ‘new’ man made road at the time, the remainder being dirt tracks.
William Edgeworth was only 19 when he drew it and for the emigrants to Argentina it would have represented what the county was like when they left. Next to it is a map of Westmeath, also presented to the club by Luke Baxter of the LHS, and dedicated to his grand uncle, Tom McGiff, from Brickeens in Longford, who arrived in Buenos Aires in 1872.
‘We are Tipperary fans, because of the colours. Tipperary has the same colours as Boca Juniors’
The club has become a stop off for touring Irish teams in Argentina. There is a clatter of plaques over the bar from rugby clubs in Leinster and Munster, and a picture of Tom Kiernan making a presentation to Dickie MacAllister’s mother when the Irish tourists dropped in in 1970. Their gala event was more recent though, when the All Stars came in 2001 with GAA president Seán McCague and played an exhibition match. The Irish community were out in force that night. In fairness, they are on autopilot to the place by now.
“Our parents and our grandparents every weekend would come to the club,” says McAllister. “In the beginning the club was in DeBoto, close to the city, but in 1948 we moved here (they dissembled the old house and took it with them and put it up on the new site) and for all the Irish community in Buenos Aires, Saturdays and Sundays they would come to the club. I remember as a little boy that every weekend there was no visit to the zoo or anywhere else, it was always the Hurling Club. From 9.0 in the morning. In the summer time when there were no classes and from Tuesday to Sunday it was every day to the club. Every day. Playing football, hockey, tennis, rugby, the swimming pool. Everything. We grew up here. I’m 57 now and I’m still doing the same. All our families involved. My parents met at the club. They fell in love here.”
And with that, himself and Ganly are thinking of another picture to point out and another face recalled. Their parting question is about this year’s All-Ireland. “Every year you are wondering, who will be the champion,” asks McAllister. “We are Tipperary fans, because of the colours. Tipperary has the same colours as Boca Juniors.”
It makes sense now: Argentine hockey players with Irish names, and Irish hurlers being bracketed with Argentina’s most famous football club.

J-Fit

I've been there and actually met Dickie McAllister. Nice guy.

bamboozling

Resurecting a dead thread but I'd like to comment on how much this aides me, I'm working over here in Buenos Aires at the moment as an English teacher and I was trying to explain hurling to them and the kids thoroughly enjoyed this piece. It was mighty difficult to get something substantial and readable so thanks very much Boards and OP.

Most of the Irish descendants here are rugby players, the Irish generally did very well for themselves and quite a few rugby players I know a lad called Brian Kennelly and looks about as Irish as Ghandi!

Its a pity the sport died out as Argentina is the 5th biggest ex pat Irish population in the world. It would be pretty cool if Buenos Aires was an outpost of Irishness but alas hurling would never have kept the same momentum, even without the wars.

riffmongous

bamboozling wrote: »

Resurecting a dead thread but I'd like to comment on how much this aides me, I'm working over here in Buenos Aires at the moment as an English teacher and I was trying to explain hurling to them and the kids thoroughly enjoyed this piece. It was mighty difficult to get something substantial and readable so thanks very much Boards and OP.

Most of the Irish descendants here are rugby players, the Irish generally did very well for themselves and quite a few rugby players I know a lad called Brian Kennelly and looks about as Irish as Ghandi!

Its a pity the sport died out as Argentina is the 5th biggest ex pat Irish population in the world. It would be pretty cool if Buenos Aires was an outpost of Irishness but alas hurling would never have kept the same momentum, even without the wars.

Well you know what you need to do Bamboozling