Camán the Slovaks!

[youbetterbelieveit]

Interesting article there on 'an fear rua'


Camán the Slovaks!
Alien ash makes the running for Irish hurley makers

The clash of the ash is now heard on the banks of the Danube, as the ancient art of hurley-making finds an unexpected new home in Slovakia.

Jack Carey, a member of the legendary Kilkenny hurling family, is training Slovak workers in how to make the camán, and inspiring them with videos of his brother, DJ Carey.

It all goes back to the shortage of suitable Irish ash to make the sticks. Hurleys made at home require 90pc of the material to be imported and it is increasingly hard to find. Mr Carey went looking for suitable supplies in eastern Europe. "They have natural ash in abundance here, but the specifications I wanted are very different from what they were used to, so it was difficult to get the material."

A breakthrough came when he made contact with Smurfit-Kapa in Sturovo, southern Slovakia. The merger between the Irish and Hungarian firms created the biggest forestry product company in the region. "You really have to have connections to do business here," Mr Carey says. "It is the biggest cultural difference from home. Trying to do business on your own just doesn't work. The Smurfit-Kapa link definitely saved my bacon."

Even then, the Slovak foresters had to be persuaded to take the ash trees up by the roots, rather than cut them in the normal way. "You need the root to get the curve in the grain of the hurley. They took a while to understand that."

Showing videos of hurling games being played was a big help. "They were absolutely amazed by the speed of it, and the physicality, and the fact that players wear so little protective gear. It was great motivation for them." Now, having watched DJ's wizardry on his own video, some of the half-dozen workers are learning how to pick up the sliotar on the stick and strike. "It shows them the balance in the stick and how it should feel."

Originally, he planned just to ship the wood to Ireland, but realised that good hurleys could be made on site. "It's a pretty mechanised business now, although the finish is done by hand. It just takes time for people to realise what they are making and we have constant training to get that through. "It is early days, but I think there is scope for expansion. It is not a question of cheaper labour. Sourcing the right material is everything in this business. "Labour is not an issue, and most of the expansion will probably come from new technology," Jack says.

[dodo]

Is Jack Carey still running this show over in Slovakia ?

Anyone use his hurls and have any opinions on them ?

I'd imagine that having 6 lads employed at this would make it one of the larger producers of hurls.