Sports in Ireland

In Ireland many people partcipate a lot of sports, for example:

Hurling is the great Irish national sport. After ahard day of raiding cattle and sword play back in the Iron Age, the lads relaxed by playing a game. The great national epic, the Táin, celebrates the skill of the ancient heroes of Ulster in battle and hurling.

Gaelic Football is played with almost the same rules, but no stick is used. It is like soccer with limited use of hands allowed.

Soccer is the the other big sport, with its own set of local clubs, amateur players, and volunteer referees. The best Irish players go abroad to make a

living, and England and the continent get the benefit. However, national teams which compete for the World Cup are made of players from dozens of different local and overseas teams who all claim Irish ancestry.

Equestrian activities, particularly show jumping and horse racing, are another key sport. Ireland has the best grass on the planet, and consequently some of the best horse flesh on the globe. Every town has its equestrian centers, and a goodly percentage of farms house a few horses as well as the more mundane cows and sheep. Betting shops, called bookmakers, are all over the place.Traditional fox hunts are still commonplace and in the depths of winter when the major tracks shut down, a circuit of point-to-point races travels from town to town.

Irish horse racing, like British, involves lots of jumps and miles of running.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMD0xq3gh5w

Golf. There are over 300 golf courses scattered everywhere in Ireland.Each attracts a membership of many hundreds, and visitors are usually welcome to playa few rounds during the warmer months. The standard of greens and fairway maintenance is extremely high and most of the courses earn the coveted "Championship" designation.The major Irish tournament on the international circuit is the Murphy's Irish Open, which attracts thousands of enthusiasts to watch thepros do their thing. There are dozens of individual golf courses on line.

Rugby. Ireland enthusiastically supports amateur rugby, and international play with the other great rugby superpowers - notably South Africa and New Zealand - is followed by large numbers of Irish people. There is again a system of amateur clubs, but these are centered on a few counties such as Kerry and Dublin. For the most part, Rugby is a telly sport, but an exciting and bone crunching one.

Motor rally, hillwalking and cycling are the other common sports. Every town in Ireland has local clubs involved in these sports. In early July 1998, the Tour De France, the second largest sporting event in the world after the Olympics, began in Ireland. In three days the bicycle racers covered hundreds of miles and some very scenic routes between Dublin and Cork.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPdCzdlo25Q