Westmeath's Castledaly proving hurling can prosper in football heartlands

By John Harrington

There are two obvious quirks about club hurling in Westmeath.

The first is that the powerbase of the game is very much concentrated in the north of the county, and the second is that all of the county’s 47 clubs are sole code clubs with 15 of them hurling clubs and 32 of them football clubs.

That’s why it caught the eye when Castledaly were one of the 45 new hurling units to successfully apply for hurling starter packs last year.

Here was a previously football-only club in the football heartland of south Westmeath deciding they wanted to give hurling a chance too.

They’ve been hurling at U8 level now for the past three years and one of the driving forces behind the experiment has been Ciarán Henson, who himself was a handy footballer in his day.

He was inspired to introduce hurling to Castledaly when he heard one of the sport’s greatest evangelists, Liam Griffin, on radio urging Gaelic football only clubs to also offer hurling and camogie to their youth.

“When I heard Liam Griffin on the radio he was my motivation,” says Henson. “He was saying that all GAA clubs that currently only have Gaelic football should offer hurling to the kids as well.

“I never played hurling myself but I always felt the lack of it and would have regretted I never did get the chance. It was too far to go for my parents to bring me into Athlone at the time.

“When I heard Liam Griffin talking about it he was just inspiring. It made me think, well, why not? Why shouldn't football clubs produce and U8 and U10 team? All you need are eight or nine gossoons or girls to put out a team.

“I reckoned that if you put a hurl in a kid's hands they'd love to swing it and would enjoy it. And that was the truth, that's the way it turned out, they've really enjoyed it.

“I remember the first blitz we played some of them got hard belts and I was going around with the freeze spray on them all and they were crying and I was thinking is this going to work at all?

“But by the second match they had toughened up and by the third match in the blitz they were absolutely flying, there was no-one crying at all by then. From the start they just loved it and it's been fierce rewarding.”

When Henson first floated the idea of introducing hurling to Castledaly the reaction was mixed.

Some were enthusiastic, some were intrigued, and some were very sceptical.

“I even had people coming to me saying you'll have to stop that hurling, we'll have no football team in a few years’ time, all the good lads will go off and play hurling,” says Henson.

“But sure that was total nonsense, it's only strengthening the lads as footballers. As I said to those people, I never saw St. Loman's or Mullingar Shamrocks or The Downs fail as football teams because they had lads who played hurling too.

“Apart from those sorts of comments it's all been very good. All other clubs have been very positive since we came in. They've been delighted to see a new team with a new jersey and the county board have been very good to us as well by scheduling some blitzes in Castledaly.

“So it's all been hugely positive and parents have been very happy with it and supportive of it.

“Even if some people were sceptical at the start, seeing the kids there with their hurls representing Castledaly in hurling blitzes has been great to see and it's actually changed the mindset of a lot of people.

“The attitude previously would have been, 'Sure how could we be hurlers? Sure there's no hurlers around here'. But we've actually produced some fantastic young hurlers. We're only putting out one team and the hurling stronghold clubs would be putting out two or three teams, but we're matching and beating the best of them when we play them because we've actually produced a couple of great little hurlers.

“Another big positive was the school (Kilcleagh NS) got to a Cumann na mBunscol Division Four Final this year. We were beaten by a school that were twice our size but we performed brilliantly and were only beaten by a goal in the last couple of minutes.

“We've a teacher in the school who played hurling for Roscommon and is big into it so that's a huge help as well in driving it on.”

Castledaly are a great example of the positive impact that the hurling starter packs have had in the clubs that successfully applied for them.

Henson doesn’t think it would have been possible to get hurling going there without that help from national level.

“It was crucial we got the helmets and the hurls and all the other gear in the starter packs because the parents would have had no intention of buying themselves,” he says.

“You couldn't expect them to fork out money for something they might think the kid will only come for one day to. It wasn't really a runner, we had to have gear for them ready to go. The fact it cost the parents nothing was a big thing.

“As well as getting the starter pack from the GAA we also got some gear from Southern Gaels and, would you believe, two lads from north Westmeath also came down to us with a heap of gear.

“They were just pure hurling enthusiasts and delighted to see some hurling going on in the south of the county. They just wanted to help us in whatever way they could and didn't want their names mentioned.

“The hurling fraternity...I wouldn't have previously been in those circles, but I find them a hugely welcoming tribe.

“The way hurling clubs help one another out is brilliant. It's a different vibe than in the football circles where everyone seems to be suspicious of everyone else!”

Castledaly have no plans currently to expand their hurling and camogie offering beyond U8 level, instead they view themselves as a feeder club for Southern Gaels Hurling and Camogie club in Athlone from U10 level up.

“Our aspirations are limited enough because Castledaly just wouldn't have the numbers to go it alone,” says Henson.

“Even as a football club we're amalgamated at underage from U12 up along with Rosemount.

“But I do think there is the potential there for forming a hurling club in our parish because there are three football clubs there - ourselves, Caulry, and Moate - and no hurling club.

“Moate is a good-sized town and with an urban centre like that as well as the two rural clubs you’d definitely have a sustainable hurling club there.

“Currently if you want to hurl beyond U8 level in our parish you have to go into Athlone which is a different geographic area completely.

“Southern Gaels are going great in fairness to them but they're only hurling club in Athlone which has a population of 28,000 so there's probably more than enough room for another hurling club there too.

“Kinnegad is another place that has become a huge urban centre as well and there's definitely room for another hurling team over there too.”

Whatever the future might bring, for now everyone associated with bringing hurling and camogie to Castledaly is delighted with the success of the project.

The children of the area have relished the opportunity and many of them who would never have otherwise played the game will continue to do so with Shannon Gaels.

And along the way many of those who would have viewed hurling as a threat to football rather than something that complements it have changed their view.

“I do think over the last three years that attitudes have definitely changed,” says Henson. “People are seeing the youngsters hurling and are talking about them.

“Even to get the blitzes in Castledaly has been great. You've people walking in there and seeing hurling there for the first time and that bit of exposure is great and it does change mindsets definitely so hopefully we can stay at it.

“It's been very well-received overall and the kids are loving it which is the main thing.

“In fairness to the parents they've been very supportive because if the parents don't come in behind you then you're at nothing.

“After a couple of months you'd start seeing another kid and another kid with their own helmet and their own hurl and getting the sort of grip on it that they want.

“All the chat heading off to the ploughing would be that they're looking to get the hurls and the grips. There's a bit of a buzz about it and now seeing hurls down in Castledaly football pitch is not unusual at all.

“They're pucking around there in the evening now and it's brilliant to see, it really is. I've gotten a great kick out of it anyway.”