The big five are: rugby, Gaelic football, soccer, cricket and hurling. Today I played hurling. It is kinda like lacrosse, except the sticks are just wood (no net) and players can use there hands to catch and throw the ball. Of course, like all Irish sports, it is fairly violent. We were taught by the coach of one of the county teams. He told us that hurling is the most popular sport that only has an armature league, but it attracts as many fans as professional sports, the only difference it that the players, coaches, and other staff do not get paid. Money generated from the games goes back into the league in the form of building upkeep, equipment, etc. The game is fairly simple: get ball in goal, do not get hit with stick. The coach showed us some simple ball handling skills and then handed us the balls and hurlies so we could practice (or in my case make a fool out of myself). We tried hitting the ball with the stick, and scooping the ball with the stick, and balancing the ball on the stick, until finally we resulted in just taking sexy pictures holding the stick. No one got hurt, everyone had fun, so overall good game.
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