Hurling strongholds in footballing counties and vice versa?

cms88

conor05 wrote: »

Kilmoyley seems to be a real hurling stronghold in North Kerry. No football played at any grade in Kilmoyley

Well Ballduff play both and would be the only ''dual'' club in that part of North Kerry, as Ardfert are two different clubs

Bonniedog

What club did Seán Boylan play with?

Had old paper from around 1967 I think, which had photo of him playing for Meath.

Uncle was playing for Dublin against Galway same day in league.

Of course it was "tidied" over the years.

Legalfarmer89

In Galway south of the motorway is hurling and north of the motorway is football, although there are exceptions and there would be hurling only teams/areas in what would seem North Galway(Turloughmore & Pearses who would have played football at one stage but not sure now)

Around the mid section of the county some neighboring parishes concentrate on hurling and another parish on football(Ahascragh/Foghenagh hurling & Caltra Football, Cappy Hurling & Gabriel’s Football, Abbeyknockmoy Hurling & Monivea Abbey Football, Carnmore Hurling & Claregalway Football) and there would be a crossover in players.

To be fair some of the football areas do have hurling teams(Skehanagh in Menlough Parrish, Sylane in Corofin Parrish & Ballygar, Annaghdown, Mountbellew/Moylough are dual, very few dual clubs for some reason) but the football would take precedence. I don’t think there is the same correlation in south Galway. Loughrea are the only team in South Galway with a football team(A few have underage but don’t have adult teams). Think Kiltormer might have one also.

Galway city is mixed and all sports would nearly be equal(hurling/football/rugby)

To be honest Junior Soccer probably has the biggest numbers in the City. Basketball madly enough seems to be popular in spots.

Connemara is predominately football but just past the City, Moycullen would be a dual club while Spiddeal, Barna/Furbo and Micheal Breathneachs do put out Hurling teams in what would be a football mostly area.

johnconnors

HartsHat wrote: »

Hurling in Meath is very strong in Trim (30 odd hurling championship to 1 in football) and some of the areas around have no interest in football at all:

Boardsmill (play a bit of football but they're obsessed with hurling)
Killyon (Hurling only)
Kiltale (Hurling obsessed with football on the side)
Rathmolyon (Hurling only)

A number of years ago [2014 , I think], happened be up around the Kildalkey area of Meath. Looking for directions [no sat-nav then], I stopped outside a house and knocked on the door. A rather irate gentleman answered and curtly told me to come in, - muttering; "such a time you had to call". The reason for his displeasure was that I had interrupted him [and his dog] watching a hurling match between Waterford and Cork. Not a word was spoken until half time. I said that it was strange to see a man with such interest in hurling in the heart of a football county. The answer I got was; "We'ed have no time for that auld football around here, -- it's all hurling in this area". - -

Three years ago, I happened to be in Ballina, Mayo just prior to Mayo playing Dublin in the All Ireland. Wishing people the best of luck in the forthcoming final, can you imagine my surprise to meet a man who showed only a mild interest in the fortunes of his counties footballers. He told me that in the area where he came from, hurling was the only game - and he was none too impressed with my ignorance of a recent success in the Nicky Rackard Cup.

beggars_bush

Bonniedog wrote: »

North County Dublin and Meath be exceptions to the good land part!. Hurling didn't exist in north county until relatively recently. Not exactly sure what the history in Meath is, but imagine it be similar.

Hurling in city was brought by people coming here from places like Tipp particularly in early 1900s.

Not true
The first hurling club was established in Dublin in 1882

kerosene

The Ards area of Co Down would be hurling mad, while the rest of the county is 90%+ football. The 3 teams in that region, Ballycran, Ballygalget and Portaferry play in the Antrim hurling leagues.

Although two clubs in the Belfast area, bredagh and carryduff have had county minor success recently, which would have been unheard of years ago, which is encouraging.

Stacksofwacks

West Limerick around the kerry border would be a big football area with very little hurling played. West Clare the same with the hurling played in and around the Ennis area. South Tipp around Clonmel and Ardfinnan is a footballing stronghold but most would be dual clubs. Same in West Waterford. East Cork is a predominantly hurling area, whilst North and mid Cork would be dual.

Bonniedog

beggars_bush wrote: »

Not true
The first hurling club was established in Dublin in 1882

Metropolitans were only functioning club for years.

More accurate, however, to have said 1890s was decade when hurling really took off.

Point anyway, is that it did not exist in Dublin until after GAA was founded although the creation of early clubs in Tallaght which was then rural south county and Garristown might point to some lingering tradition.

kksaints

castletownman wrote: »

In Wexford, Oulart the Ballagh, Buffers Alley and Rathnure would be the three predominatedly hurling strongholds, with the first two neighbours and the third in a small pocket of their own in the blackstairsmountains. To be fair to the Alley, at least they more often than not field a football team at junior B level but the other two don't concentrate on it as a rule (even though Rathnure won a senior football title in 1950s!). It must be said though that the majority of clubs within the county would side towards hurling.

The football pockets wouldn't be as concentrated, although it probably could be argued that the countryside around New Ross is probably football-orientated considering the amount of senior clubs in the code from that area. My own club Castletown and Kilanerin are definitely 'football first' and are indeed the only two senior teams north of Enniscorthy and are surrounded by clubs in the district that concentrate on hurling (with Naomh Eanna and Ferns the only two at the top grade). But Castletown and Kilanerin still compete in hurling and will actually meet in the Inter A quarter finals in a fortnight (well under different names ).

There is a sort of snobbery towards football in the county though. Shelmaliers and Starlights are the last two senior football champions, and are dual. But a lot of 'experts' claim its impossible for a dual senior club to win a hurling title because of the extra workload, when often it works the other way with momentum etc. St.Martin's too have had massive underage success, have a tonne of talent coming through, won a maiden senior football title in 2013, get to the quarter-finals at least in the competititon every year, and always seem to claim that football is a hindrance to their hurling credentials!

Id say that Wexford town is something of a football stronghold in Wexford with four football teams compared to one/two hurling clubs (not sure what you'd call Clonard these days).

ForestFire

They actually sell footballs in Elverys in Kilkenny city...I $h1T you not....:eek:

Okay they are kept well hidden under the counter and you have to ask for them, but they are there trust me

Bonniedog

ForestFire wrote: »

They actually sell footballs in Elverys in Kilkenny city...I $h1T you not....:eek:

Okay they are kept well hidden under the counter and you have to ask for them, but they are there trust me

"I have a friend who thinks he might like to play football...."

BloodyBill

Stacksofwacks wrote: »

West Limerick around the kerry border would be a big football area with very little hurling played. West Clare the same with the hurling played in and around the Ennis area. South Tipp around Clonmel and Ardfinnan is a footballing stronghold but most would be dual clubs. Same in West Waterford. East Cork is a predominantly hurling area, whilst North and mid Cork would be dual.

Absolutely agree with the West Limerick border area. Also hurling around the Northside of Limerick city would be strong in a Rugby/Soccer city. Na Piarsaigh is surrounded by Famous Rugby clubs like Shannon..and smaller rugby clubs like St Mary's and Thomond. The only hurling area it borders is Cratloe and Meelick in Clare .
I would say the real hurling only area in Clare is not around Ennis. It's around a 10 mile radius of Sixmilebridge in South East Clare. Clonlara, Parteen, Shannon, Clooney Quin,Newmarket...Kilaloe,Broadford and then on up the East to Feakle and beyond...which is further than 10 miles. Cratloe being the only real successful dual club in that bunch..

bruschi

kksaints wrote: »

Id say that Wexford town is something of a football stronghold in Wexford with four football teams compared to one/two hurling clubs (not sure what you'd call Clonard these days).

not really. Just happens that the Vols stopped hurling as it meant players who played football with Vols and hurled with Harriers had to stop hurling with Harriers or else change football clubs. Clonard are an exclusively hurling only club now too. Hurling in the Harriers is taken a lot more seriously than football in most of the other clubs in the town. Of the football teams in the town, you have Vols, Maudlintown, St Josephs and Sarsfields, with only Sars in senior and struggling for years to stay there. The others plod away at Intermediate level, Maudlintown probably the best equipped going forward.

Most of Wexford is dual, there wouldnt be any large pockets of one over the other noticeably bucking a trend. Other than the hurling only clubs in Oulart and Rathnure, every other team fields in both codes is some shape or form. whilst Faythe Harriers are a hurling club only, most of their team will line out with Sarsfields or the other football clubs. I wouldnt be surprised too to see Oulart or Rathnure fielding football teams in the future as Oulart have done very well with underage football primary school teams.

Dick Turnip

The northern part of Westmeath is the hurling stronghold in that county. If you take the N4 as the dividing line then most of the hurling clubs in the county are located north/north west of the N4 and Mullingar. There seems to be a good few 'hurling only' clubs but there would be a football club in the same parish. A lot of the clubs here would be junior in the football championship. This would be a very rural part of the county, a lot of these clubs are small villages and parishes.

p.s. - I'm not from Westmeath myself so open to further clarification on any of the above!

Also, from my limited knowledge of Tipperary GAA it seems that the south east part of the county is the football area, particularly around Clonmel.

Danno

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

North West Kerry.

Draw a triangle, Tralee north to Listowel, Tralee west to Ballyhigue, and the coast as the third side.

Everything in that triangle is hurling.

The 8 teams in the county championship come from there.

I think this anomaly could be down to the "Seven Septs of Laois" that were settled there in north Kerry back when the English were taking over Laois and Offaly.

Meanwhile back in Laois, all of west Laois is hurling while east Laois is Football.

Bonniedog

Danno wrote: »

I think this anomaly could be down to the "Seven Septs of Laois" that were settled there in north Kerry back when the English were taking over Laois and Offaly.

Had never heard that one. Interesting.

I have family living in exile in Coill Dubh in Kildare which is one of strongest hurling clubs in county, all hurling at one time, not sure now.

The houses around the green were built to house Bord na Móna workers and most of them came from north Kerry and story is that it was these people who brought hurling with them. Not sure about other hurling part of the county.

hardybuck

Duffy the Vampire Slayer wrote: »

Not quite the same, but Waterford has a great record in women's football, whereas the men's team is very weak.

Large swathes of West Waterford would have been footballing areas until the late 90s when hurling in the county took off again, and many clubs in those areas would still concentrate on football or at least be 50:50 between hurling and football.

Clubs like the Nire and Stradbally would have reached Munster club finals a few times in recent years but just fell short.

Waterford reached three Munster U21 football finals in the 90s.

They won the 2003 title, powered by the Brick Walsh in particular, beating Cork in the semi and pipping a Kerry team that included Gooch Cooper, Declan O'Sullivan, Bryan Sheehan, Kieran Dohaghy, Seamus Scanlon et al. Dublin beat them in the All Ireland semi and went on to win their first All Ireland U21 a few weeks later - Alan Brogan was the star of that Dublin team team.

They also got to a Munster U21 final in 2006, and got promoted to Div 3 of the league a few years later. Up until a few years back they would have been at a similar level to Tipp - who subsequently powered on to a new level.

What happens to good footballers in Waterford - many of them get selected to play for the county hurlers. The County Board wouldn't be great at ensuring that football development got much attention in recent years either.

Bonniedog

hardybuck wrote: »

The County Board wouldn't be great at ensuring that football development got much attention in recent years either.

Met a lad called Drummy years ago. Think his family used to do the scoreboard in Fraher's field. Football fanatic.

Didn't the county board have the senior club final around Christmas one year?

hardybuck

Bonniedog wrote: »

Met a lad called Drummy years ago. Think his family used to do the scoreboard in Fraher's field. Football fanatic.

Didn't the county board have the senior club final around Christmas one year?

More than once in recent years the county final was played too late to allow a Waterford team to play in the Munster championship - which is pretty frustrating as the teams would normally be competitive.

The football championship would have been sacrificed in those years to try and scrape the hurling team into the Munster club - not terribly well run club setup in Waterford at all.

As an aside, I think the minor footballers and the U21 footballers were the only Waterford teams to win Munster championship fixtures at any level in 2019.

Also, the Waterford senior footballers are the only senior team to win a championship fixture since 2017 - beating Wexford in the qualifiers. The hurlers haven't won a championship game since winning the All Ireland semi final in 2017.

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

I would have thought of Waterford as a place without much football, but it seems almost every county plays quite a lot of football.

hardybuck

Duffy the Vampire Slayer wrote: »

I would have thought of Waterford as a place without much football, but it seems almost every county plays quite a lot of football.

The vast majority of clubs in Waterford play football - I can only think of Ballygunner and Passage that don't, and both affiliated to a football only club called Gaultier that was previously mentioned on this thread.

I think this is in contrast with hurling, as many counties hardly have a club hurling championship in it at all.

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

Hurling is really very regional. There are lots of counties where it is barely played, or is at least much less popular than football. If you look at a map of the main places it's played, it's incredibly compact.

hardybuck

Duffy the Vampire Slayer wrote: »

Hurling is really very regional. There are lots of counties where it is barely played, or is at much less popular than football. If you look at a map of the main places it's played, it's incredibly compact.

And even if you look into parts of South Tipp there - it'll be a football area, and a lot of their lads who won the All Ireland the other week will be playing football with their clubs.

Wexford was arguably a football county before the Rackards came to the fore.

South Dublin has since bucked the trend, possibly due to migration of people from hurling areas to the likes of Ballyboden, Kilmacud and most recently Cuala.

Carlow have made huge strides in the last five years or so, and Laois had a big revival this year.

Antrim were playing in All Ireland finals once upon a time but are now in dire straights.

Bonniedog

That map is a bit off beam if you ask me. North Kerry excluded, north Wexford!, all of Dublin, a place in Cork that won the All Ireland!

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

Bonniedog wrote: »

That map is a bit off beam if you ask me. North Kerry excluded, north Wexford!, all of Dublin, a place in Cork that won the All Ireland!

North Kerry is marked as a hurling region on that map. I don't know about Wexford. What is the part of Cork that's missing? Also, it's from the 90s, so Dublin was definitely not regarded as a hurling region when it was made.

hardybuck

Bonniedog wrote: »

That map is a bit off beam if you ask me. North Kerry excluded, north Wexford!, all of Dublin, a place in Cork that won the All Ireland!

North Wexford is mainly football. Gorey won the county hurling in 2018 but it was the first time in their history.

Bonniedog

Duffy the Vampire Slayer wrote: »

North Kerry is marked as a hurling region on that map. I don't know about Wexford. What is the part of Cork that's missing? Also, it's from the 90s, so Dublin was definitely not regarded as a hurling region when it was made.

Missed the Kerry bit, its so small!

Newtownshandrum? Is either barely inside or outside the shade.

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

Newtownshandrum would seem to be inside the grey area as far as I can see, but it's not far from the line.

Kerrydude1981

Hard to believe that during the 60s the Kerry hurling and football senior championships had the same number of teams

16 teams taking part in both

KevRossi

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

North West Kerry.

Draw a triangle, Tralee north to Listowel, Tralee west to Ballyhigue, and the coast as the third side.

Everything in that triangle is hurling.

The 8 teams in the county championship come from there.

First place I ever saw hurling was in Abbeydorney, we rented a house there on holidays as a child, could not understand how Kerry people weren't playing football.

Duffy the Vampire Slayer wrote: »

Hurling is really very regional. There are lots of counties where it is barely played, or is at least much less popular than football. If you look at a map of the main places it's played, it's incredibly compact.

Good map, but part of Roscommon missing, Draw a line from Roscommon down directly west and another south west and it's pretty much all hurling there.

Almost all of Antrims hurling is in the Glens, connection to Scotland and Shinty made the game popular up there, they've had the odd success over the years, AI final appearance and a AI Club championship as well.

Bit on it here

https://twitter.com/officialgaa/status/1101497172539908101

And there's a bit more on it here: https://www.historyireland.com/18th-19th-century-history/the-geography-of-hurling-11-2/