IRISH FREE STATE: Hurlers at Cootehill
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"Recent history of the Free State is blackened by murders as bad as ever blackened the history of any country, but the Government is determined to hold the murder gang in check. ... It is likely that provision will be made for the establishment of a special tribunal to try certain cases, this body to be vested with powers to impose a capital sentence."
The Orangemen were not long in waiting for their revenge for Cootehill. Saturday the Ancient Order of Hibernians (Catholic) were to meet at Armagh. This time it was the Orangemen who felled trees, pulled up rails. Henry Bell, engineer of a freight train, was stopped by sullen gunmen, made to wreck his locomotive at an open gap in the rails. At Portadown, County Armagh, Orangemen and Republicans fought in the streets for two days with stones and bottles of Guinness's Stout. Orangemen rallied to the tune of "Dolly's Brae" and "Derry's Walls," and attempted to batter down the gates of a convent with an old pushcart for a battering ram. A well-flung whiskey bottle laid out the chief constable.
*Hurling is Ireland's ancient version of Hockey. Hurling sticks (Hurleys) are shorter and thicker than hockey sticks, with flat bottomed blades as in ice hockey. There are 15 men on a team, seven backs, eight forwards. The field is 140 yards long with a crossbarred goal at each end. A shot over the bar counts 1 point or A of a goal. A goal is a shot beneath the bar. An official game consists of two periods of 30 minutes each. Of hurling says W. P. Clifford, President of the Gaelic Athletic Association:
"Daredevil pluck, ultra rapidity of thought and movement, cool calculation and reckless abandon, honor blended with determination— these are some of the demands and features of the great, clean national game. Through the long Dark Ages of serfdom, hurling remained with us as a bulwark second only to our national language in preserving our subdued and suppressed individuality."
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