Gaelic Games played abroad in 1800s

[Aristotle Flynn]

http://beehive.thisiscornwall.co.uk/default.asp?WCI=SiteHome&ID=661&PageID=73545

I came across this web site and I had no idea that hurling was played in Cornwall in the 1800s. I've always been interested in the history of the GAA and hurling and this was news to me. Has anybody any other information of Gaelic games played abroad other than by Irish immigrants?

[Gnevin]

Sounds like they are  talking about http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornish_hurling

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurling_Across_the_World is interesting

[Colonel Cool]

Interesting article Gnevin. I think Aristotle has the wrong end of the hurley stick.
There were hurling/shinty like games played in Wales (Bando) and the Isle of Man (Cammag) for centuries. Both have largely died out in the past 100 years.

Cammag - Isle of Man
Cammag is similar to the Scottish game of shinty, and Irish hurling. It used to be the most widespread sport on the Isle of Man, but it ceased to be played after the introduction of football, until very recently when it has been somewhat revived. It involves a stick (cammag) and a ball (crick) with anything between four and hundreds of players. Sometimes whole towns and villages took part, or even played each other. The cammag can be any stick with a bent end, and the crick can be made from cork or wood. Old accounts tell us that it was occasionally covered in a rag to make it less painful to hit. Cammag season started on Hunt the Wren Day (26th December) and was only played by men (of all ages) during the winter. Realistically, it ceased to be played around 1900. However, in modern times, an annual match of cammag is played in St. John's (Balley Keill Eoin). As there are no rules to cammag, a trip to the local inn is advised to ease any feelings of cowardice beforehand!


Sports festivals in Wales
The gŵyl mabsant was one of the most popular festivals in the Welsh rural calendar. Commemorating the local parish saint, this annual celebration developed from a dedication through prayer to a programme of recreational pastimes, enjoyed by all.


First mentioned in writing around 1470, g?ylmabsantau were common throughout Wales until the mid- to late 19th-century. According to author Benjamin Malkin writing in 1803, the Radnorshire parish revels "rendered a kind of circus for every sport and exercise" while a Vale of Clwyd parson, quoted by Elias Owen in 1886, claimed that wakes "gave an individuality to parochial life and fostered parish patriotism".

Among the games regularly contested were a selection of athletic sports, ranging from running races to old women's grinning matches and blindfolded wheelbarrow-driving. At the three day sports event held in Llangyfelach near Swansea in 1780, competitions and prizes included a women's race for a smock and petticoat, eating a hot pudding for a silver table spoon, and a bull bait, in which the owner of the best dog received a bull calf. Animal sports were a familiar scene, particularly cockfights, on which large amounts of money were wagered. Birds were specially trained for the contest, and the owner of a victorious cockerel was held in high esteem.

Early versions of Association Football were often played over Christmas, New Year and at Shrovetide. Large crowds of spectators gathered to witness the matches, which, owing to a lack of pre-determined rules, tended to degenerate into chaos, with injuries being commonplace.

Bando was another favoured team sport and continued in some areas until the late 19th-century. Particularly popular in Glamorgan, bando was similar to the modern game of hockey and teams used clubs to strike the ball towards a goal. Bando contained elements which were constant lubricants of sport across the centuries and which foresaw the coming of organised games. These included an agreed number of players, a fixed area of play, teams differentiated by colours (such as the red and white favoured by the Margam side, west Glamorgan), gambling on the result and matches well-patronised by brewers.

Owing to the combination of betting, feasting and alcohol consumption, it was not surprising that parish festivals built-up a reputation for their rowdiness. Publicans often played a significant role in organising and promoting sports events, and many cockfights, running races, and the like, were arranged over the bar. The games contested were invariably rather high-spirited affairs and unwritten rules were often decided informally before the start of a match. As many sports were localised activities, rules usually differed from place to place, leading to disagreements between parishes.

Concern regarding the unlicensed revelry and alcoholic over-indulgence commonly occurring at the festivals, as well as the doubtful benefits of the games themselves, was increasingly voiced from several quarters from the 18th-century onwards, most noticeably by religious leaders.

The Methodist and other religious revivals which swept across Wales from the mid 18th-century until the turn of the 20th-century, attacked sporting activities indiscriminately as worthless and sinful. Physical recreation was viewed by some as a great threat to the morals of the population, with eminent religious figures such as Thomas Charles and Griffith Jones seeking to suppress impious fairs and festivals, the former depicting Wales in 1799 as "sunk in superstition and vice". Consequently, parishioners turned increasingly to churches and chapels for release and salvation, and as prayer meetings were sometimes purposely arranged to clash with sports days, religion became a potent force in the latter's eventual decline.