Ballyhea GAA : Cork : Ireland : History

Pre G.A.A. Days
In 1980 a massive book - "Sceal na hlomana" by An Br. O Caithnia was published. This book deals with the history of hurling up to 1884, - the year the G.A.A. was founded. It is clear that before 1884 there were two types of hurling. One was a parish to parish game called 'scoubeen'. The other type was played within a single field as at the present time. In the game played within a single field the scoring points were some objects on the end ditches, such as two bushes. A goal was scored by sending the ball over the ditch into the next field, between the selected markers. An account, of the game of hurling is given in John Dunston's Letters written in the 17th. century. Dunston states that when the cows were casting off their hair that the Irish pulled it off their backs and worked it with their hands into large balls which grow very hard. This ball was used at the hurling and it was struck by a commaan which was a stick about 3 and a half feet long in the handle. At the lower end it was crooked and it was about 3 inches broad. On this broad part he states you could see one of the gamesters carry the ball, tossing it for forty or fifty yards in spite of the adverse players. When he was likely to lose it he generally gave it a great drive towards the goal. Sometimes, according to Dunston, the player in question missed the ball and knocked one of his opponents down. No resentment was shown at injuries. In fact Dunston states that players seldom came off without broken heads or shins in which they gloried very much.

Dunston further states that these games of hurling were played sometimes between parishes or baronies. The teams consisted of ten, twelve or twenty players and the prize was generally a barrel or two of ale which was drunk off on the field. It appears that the losers got some of the ale too. The goals apparently were two hundred or three hundred yards apart. The players, according to Dunston, were of the younger and most active among them and their kindred and mistresses were usually spectators at the hurling game. Two or three bagpipers attended the winners at the barrel's head and then played them out of the field. Dunston states further that two thousand people attended some of these games.

The two types of hurling, - scoubeen and barra or field hurling, were played in Ballyhea in the years before the Gaelic Athletic Association was founded in 1884. This fact is stated by Patrick Bradley in his book - "While I Remember." Bradley was born in 1858 and he lived for some years with his aunts, the Howards, who lived in the townland of Pruntas in the place where Charles O'Callaghan now lives. Bradley states in his book that the hurleys used in field hurling and scoubeen did not differ very much from the ones used in hurling under G.A.A. Rules in the first quarter of the Twentieth Century. The earliest ball he remembered was called a "roancheen". The roancheen was made of old wool from the worn stockings on a centre of cork, and it was covered with hair. Later on a ball called a "slitter" was used. The inner parts were the same as those of the roancheen, but they were covered with leather, by the local shoemaker. The "slitter" was twice the size of the present day sliotar. The hair for covering the roancheen was spun in the same way as for "spancels", but much finer, and it was considered quite an art to turn out a regularly round ball.

Practice was known as "puck about". An ordinary match included all the players available. Two leaders tossed, not a coin, but a hurley, right or left - for first call. The term captain was not used at that time. The selection went on until the roll-call was finished, and all the players lined up on opposite sides. The numbers in teams varied, but the average would probably amount to fifty. After the selection of sides the players went to the middle of the field, where the ball was thrown in, and play commenced.

There were few rules, but one, generally recognised and fully enforced, referred to the "highraddy". When the ball was driven into the dyke or ditch opposite the goal point it was considered out of play. A player from each side was selected, and they stood toe to toe opposite the goal with their hurleys raised. The ball was thrown high up between them. One player tried to drive the ball between the goal points over the fence into the next field and thereby score a goal for his team. The other player tried to clear for his side. This oftenled to exciting crashes, and the ash often failed to stand the strain of the impacts, the opponents putting every ounce of strength into their efforts to score or save for their sides. An expert player often scored a goal without this ordeal by lifting the ball on the boss of his hurley and getting it over the fence before being challenged by an opponent. This feat meant special skill. Another way of lifting a ball was by giving it a snick in the side. This was called a "dreebeen" and it required both quickness and dexterity. Apparently there was some idea of an "offside rule, for when a player got deliberately in your way you called out "Dhush".

Patrick Bradley then describes a "scoubeen" match between Ballyhea and Charleville that took place in the 1870's. A "scoubeen" differed from a "barra" or "field game" in several important points. The first difference was that there was no limit to the number of players on either side. There was a free hand to draw hurlers from any distance. There was no defined goals or landmarks. When the ball was thrown up the cry was "All for home" as the aim of each "scoubeen" team was to bring the ball home to its own place. Therefore the game swept on regardless of obstacle, over hedges or ditches, roads or rivers. For this famous "scoubeen" match of the 1870s Ballyhea recruited players from the neighbouring parishes of Churchtown, Buttevant, Doneraile, and as far south as Mallow. Charleville brought contingents from Garrienderk, Rockhill, Colmanswell, Bruree, Feenagh, almost up to the Shannon. The game started on the Hill of The Old Pike. The object of the play was to take the ball either to Charleville or some selected place in Ballyhea.

When the ball was thrown up, after some equal returns and intensive and exciting play on the hill itself, the ball was got over the first fence to the south and then playing with an incline, the Ballyhea side kept the ball practically on the move without any serious check. Ballyhea got the ball over the first fence, not by a "highraddy", but by lifting the ball on a hurley boss. This was a very difficult task to do considering the number of players involved in the game. Patrick Bradley estimates that five hundred players took part in the game. So it is easy to visualise how difficult it was to get the ballon a hurley boss. According to Bradley there were two thousand spectators at the game. The play continued through a meadow flooded with a foot of water, as well as other serious obstacles, until it reached the banks of the Awbeg River. At this point Charleville conceded the match as they realized that they could not get the ball out of the area where it was. This area was known as "Madigan's Marsh". Apparently Ballyhea scoubeen players were very anxious to bring the ball to this place as "no one born could bring a ball out of there". An old rule of hurling was that "the ball should always be the object of the game." However on this occasion hurleys were used for "uses other than striking the ball". Still nobody was killed and very few were seriously injured.

Another scoubeen match was held between Ballyhea and Charleville. On the second occasion Charleville won and their players actually carried the ball into the town. "Scoubeen" was not general throughout Ireland but was confined to certain districts in the south of the country. Ballyhea played "scoubeen" games against Buttevant, also, in the Velvetstown area. Buttevant played similar games against Churchtown and Liscarroll combinations in the terrain close to the present St. Brigid's Cemetery on the Buttevant to Liscarroll road.

The following is a list of some of the better known of the scoubeen players in Ballyhea in the years preceding the founding of the G.A.A. - S. Flaherty, D. Walshe, P. Walshe, N. McCarthy, Tom Connell, S. Desmond, M. Fitzgerald, J. McNamara, 'Kane Mahony, P. Connell, N. Hurley, J. O'Shea, W. Burke, P. Brosnahan, J. Reidy, P. Cowhey, "Rairey" Walshe, T. O'Meara, J. Nunan, D. Browne, W. Murphy, P. Boddie, L. Brassill, J. Flynn, "Gorsoon" Connors, M. Daly, "Fuadach" Doherty, "Daisy" Connors, Mike Walshe, J. Ryan, T. Fitzgibbon, P. O'Leary, M. Clarson, and Billy Howard.

Solo-runs were very popular in scoubeen. The art of "solo" was known as "fuadach". Each parish had its own "fuadach" man. Denis Doherty filled this role for Ballyhea and he became known locally as "Fuadach" Doherty. Indeed his family became known as the "Fuadach" Dohertys. Denis Doherty's job was to get the ball on his hurley and run as fast as he could for home. He was a man of exceptional athletic ability. At the age of sixty-five years he was able to clear a kitchen table in a standing leap. For the bet of a pint he did a "standing-leap" over the counter of Dick Connor's pub in Charleville. That pub is now owned by the Mulcahy Family. On another occasion at Cahirconner, out of a challenge, he jumped over a half-door through a doorway having taken only about a ten-foot run. The remarkable feature in this performance was that he had little scope above the half-door to get his body through. It was little wonder that the name of "fuadach" was assigned to him on the scoubeen fields.

William Murphy of Liscarroll was another noted player in those days. This man's fame will live long in local history for his feat in throwing a sledge over the walls of Liscarroll Castle. The late Con Walshe of Castledod told Jim Meagher that he remembered seeing Murphy play. He told of an incident in a "scoubeen" match between Ballyhea and Liscarroll parishes. In the course of play Murphy was unfairly tackled by a Ballyhea player. Murphy, a man of great build and physique, dropped his hurley and catching the Ballyhea man by the neck of the coat and seat of the pants, he heaved him over the ditch. The Ballyhea man concerned was an employee of Walshes' of Castledod, and had to suffer the jeers and jokes of his fellow-workers for many a day.

Another Ballyhea player who dared to tackle Murphy was William Burke of Cooline. Burke, by all accounts, was a hurler of exceptional skill. He was small in stature, and had a very clever knack of upending opposing players with a tackle which certainly would not be permitted under the present-day rules of the G.A.A. Hurling was not as fast then as it is nowadays. Very often, in a scoubeen match, the ball remained practically on the same spot whilst players endeavoured to hurl it backwards and forwards.

Outside this battling group, there was a circle of players in half-crouching positions, with hurleys at the ready, yelling and shouting, and hoping that a chance stroke would send the ball their way. Burke usually maneouvred on the outside, and when the ball was likely to move in a certain direction to a dangerous player, Burke came from behind, ran his head between the legs of the crouching opponent and upended him on the spot.

When he tried this trick on William Murphy of Liscarroll, Burke found himself locked in a vice-like grip between the knees of the Liscarroll giant. The yells of the Cooline man failed to soften the heart of Murphy, who did not release his grip until Burke was completely exhausted. Men took great pride in marking or receiving a wound from a great player such as Murphy, and it was their custom to move conspicuously around the parish, during the week following a match, displaying their cuts and bruises.

Con Walsh also recalled that his elder brother was one of the Ballyhea men who played in the scoubeen game against Liscarroll. He received a head-wound in the play. The only first-aid treatment available was the tying of a handkerchief around the head. It was not very effective, and the blood continued to ooze through it whilst he played.

There was no referee, goal umpires or linesmen in a scoubeen match. If things were not going right, there were enough people present to rectify matters. How they chose to do so was another day's work.

The game of football was popular in Ballyhea at one period before the founding of the Gaelic Athletic Association. Those were the days when, like scoubeen, there were no set rules for the game. A player was permitted to pick and run with the ball until he was dragged down, somewhat in the same manner as rugby is played nowadays. The game was known as "Caid". There is. no written record of any game of "Caid" that was played in Ballyhea. It would appear that its popularity had died out long before the "scoubeen" match between Ballyhea and Charleville which we mentioned earlier in this chapter. It is more than likely that no games of "Caid" were played in Ballyhea after The Great Famine of 1845-48. With the dying out of "Caid", hurling in its two forms prospered. John Ryan of Cooline did much to popularise the game of hurling. He was the prime organiser of all matches played in the district.

With such a long and deep-rooted tradition of hurling, in its different forms, it is no wonder that the seed sown by the infant Gaelic Athletic Association found such fertile soil in the parish of Ballyhea. Furthermore, it was not just accidental that this young G.A.A. seed quickly bore fruit and has continued to flower for the past century.