Tuesday 10 July 2012

Hurling on the rise in USA - read all about it

Available through Amazon.
Kindle Price: $10.37/£6.60.
A new ebook, Hurling USA: America discovers an ancient Irish sport, by Irish freelance journalist, podcaster, and former U.S. migrant Denis O'Brien, tells how hurling is spreading to American towns and cities that until recently never knew the sport existed. The author reveals why the sport is hooking Americans young and old.

Readers follow a trail to Mesopotamia, Egypt, across Europe and Canada to sample ancient stick ball games. Hurling's Irish roots are traced in myth, law, iconography, history, lecture and fascinating first-hand accounts of old matches. In the middle of the 19th century, hurling arrives in America with immigrants and prospers in the big cities until squabbling, assimilation, depression, war and exclusiveness see it fade into the background of ethnic entertainment in place to this day.

Hurling USA goes on to outline exactly where, how and why the sport is growing on college campuses and on American public parks. The author brings into focus the hit-and-miss Irish summer player model adopted by older ex-pat clubs in big cities in comparison to steady growth at new hurling clubs.

In the concluding chapter of the 309-page book, he examines what hurling's growing presence could mean for the sport's governing body in Ireland, the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), Irish immigrants and the American sporting landscape.