Old Parish
Notes on Hurling
Published on 18. September 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
240 pages
978-1-84488-689-0 (ISBN)
Description
Shortlisted for The Last Word Listeners' Choice Award, Irish Book Awards 2025
'No matter if you're a die-hard hurling fanatic or you've never seen a match, Old Parish is well worth a read.' Hot Press
'Entertaining and thoughtful' Irish Independent
---
Hurling is Ireland's national game - a source of fascination and pride, even to people who have never played it. Ciaran Murphy, a lifelong club footballer, used to be one of those people. Then he spent a summer trying to play hurling with a tiny club in the West Waterford Gaeltacht. Along the way he embarked on a quest to understand the history, geography and mystique of this extraordinary sport.
Old Parish is the club of Ciaran's father, a club where relatives of his are still deeply involved, and possibly the only place brave (or stupid) enough to take on a forty-one-year-old newcomer to the game. Predictably (and at times hilariously), Ciaran finds out just how difficult a sport hurling is to pick up when you're in your sporting dotage, up against men who've played it since childhood.
Ciaran also explores why hurling is played in only half the country; he investigates the origins of hurling clubs' antipathy to football and the difficulties of establishing hurling in new areas; he looks into the mysteries of hurley-making; and he seeks to understand why, when a hurling legend refers to the sport as 'the greatest game ever played by any man', he has to be taken seriously.
Anyone who has ever watched hurling knows that it is something unique and extraordinary. Old Parish explains why.
'No matter if you're a die-hard hurling fanatic or you've never seen a match, Old Parish is well worth a read.' Hot Press
'Entertaining and thoughtful' Irish Independent
---
Hurling is Ireland's national game - a source of fascination and pride, even to people who have never played it. Ciaran Murphy, a lifelong club footballer, used to be one of those people. Then he spent a summer trying to play hurling with a tiny club in the West Waterford Gaeltacht. Along the way he embarked on a quest to understand the history, geography and mystique of this extraordinary sport.
Old Parish is the club of Ciaran's father, a club where relatives of his are still deeply involved, and possibly the only place brave (or stupid) enough to take on a forty-one-year-old newcomer to the game. Predictably (and at times hilariously), Ciaran finds out just how difficult a sport hurling is to pick up when you're in your sporting dotage, up against men who've played it since childhood.
Ciaran also explores why hurling is played in only half the country; he investigates the origins of hurling clubs' antipathy to football and the difficulties of establishing hurling in new areas; he looks into the mysteries of hurley-making; and he seeks to understand why, when a hurling legend refers to the sport as 'the greatest game ever played by any man', he has to be taken seriously.
Anyone who has ever watched hurling knows that it is something unique and extraordinary. Old Parish explains why.
Reviews / Votes
Murphy's great gift as a storyteller is an ability to see things in the round -- Malachy Clerkin * Irish Times * Entertaining and thoughtful * Irish Independent * No matter if you're a die-hard hurling fanatic or you've never seen a match, Old Parish is well worth a read. * Hot Press *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Ireland
Publishing group
Penguin Books Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (UK-trade)
Dimensions
Height: 233 mm
Width: 153 mm
Thickness: 21 mm
Weight
300 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-84488-689-0 (9781844886890)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Ciaran Murphy is an acclaimed podcaster (with Second Captains), a trusted columnist (with the Irish Times), and an ageing Gaelic footballer (originally with Milltown in Co. Galway, latterly with Templeogue Synge Street in Dublin). This is the Life was his first book.