That's very fine initiative!
As you can tell from my nick I'm not from Kerry originally but I hope can tell you a bit about hurling in Kerry. Kerry is one of those counties to be considered a football county but we do play hurling as well. Hurling is mostly played in North kerry and the rest of the county plays football. Players from the North Kerry championship, like Paul Galvin, often play football with their own Parish and hurling with another. Lixnaw is the most succesful team at the moment with Ballyduff and Kilmoyley not far behind.
In Hurling Kerry play in Hurling League division 2 with Wexford, Carlow, Down, Laois, Antrim, Offaly, Westmeath. So far we've played one game and that was versus Wexford (and lost).
Division Two contains eight teams. Each team plays all the others once. The top two play the final; the winners of the final are the 2009 Division Two champions and are promoted. The eighth-placed team are relegated.
You can find this years league fiytures at
www.gaa.ie/page/allianz_gaa_hurling_national_league_2009.htmlIn the hurling championship we play in the Christy Ring cup.
The Christy Ring Cup is in effect a competition for the "Division 2" hurling teams, the so-called middle-ranking hurling teams in Ireland. It is an extension of the Guinness All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship, the premier knock-out hurling competition. The series of games are organised by the Gaelic Athletic Association and are played during the summer months with the Final being played in Croke Park, Dublin.
The Christy Ring Cup is the name of the Cup that hurling teams play for in the final of this newly created competition. The cup and competition are named after Christy Ring, considered to be the greatest hurler of all time. The winner of this cup goes on to play in the participate in the All-Ireland series for the Liam McCarthy Cup the following year. The inaugural "Christy Ring Cup" final was played on Sunday 14 August 2005 between Down and Westmeath.
Twelve teams participated in the Christy Ring Cup 2008. They are: Armagh,Carlow,Down, Derry, Kerry, Kildare, London, Mayo, Meath, Roscommon, Wicklow, Wetmeath.
Kerry's first All-Ireland championship win was in hurling. Only club teams were allowed in 1891, so Kilmoyley club, a team from North Kerry, disbanded and joined up with Ballyduff so that their joint team could win the All-Ireland. This remains Kerry's only hurling title. After the game the rules were changed to allow selected county teams in the Championship. It was the first time s Munster team won both Munster and All Irelands in the same year. As well as 1891 Kerry have played in Munster Senior Hurling Championship Finals in 1889, 1890, 1892, 1900 and 1908. Kerry have played in just one Munster Minor Hurling Championship Final, in 1938, when they lost to a Cork team that included the great Christy Ring.
Kerry's most notable hurling achievement in recent times occurred in the 1993 Munster championship when John Meyler's Kerry team shocked Waterford by a score of 4-13 to 3-13. It was reward for years of progress which included a draw with Kilkenny in the National Hurling League. Kerry followed it up in 1995 with their most famous ever League victory, a win over newly crowned All-Ireland champions Clare.
2003 was the most recent progress when the team made it to the 4th round of the qualifiers only to go down to Limerick 1-14 tp 0-24 in Austin Stack Park in Tralee. Along the way the beat Westmeath, Carlow and beaten Ulster finalists Derry. The wins over Westmeath and Carlow was the first time a Kerry team won 2 Championship games in a row.
Honours
* All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championships: 1
o 1891
* All-Ireland Under-21 Hurling Championships: 3
B 2001, 2002, 2006
* All-Ireland Minor Hurling Championships: 2 B 2000, 2006
* All-Ireland Junior Hurling Championships: 2
o 1961, 1972
* National Hurling Leagues Div2:
2001
* Munster Senior Hurling Championships: 1
o 1891
* Munster Under-21 Hurling Championships: None
* Munster Minor Hurling Championships: None
* Munster Junior Hurling Championships: 1
There are a few forums here on Kerry Hurling.
Most notably this one
kerrygaa.proboards14.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1491If you have lots of questions about this years team you can ask them there. For general questions feel free to ask me or any of the people here. They don't bite and are very friendly. A friend of mine is setting up a club in Orlando and he might be able to get you in contact with Hurling clubs in Chicago. There are many Irishmen in Chicago and many clubs so I'm sure you'll find more info. I know a lot of people in the Madison and Berkeley clubs if that would help you, many natives of Cork but they might be able to tell about Cork too (though reluctantly).
) but Happy Easter to you all as well.