Gaelic Boys of Summer Hurl Themselves Into the Void

If the evaporation of the baseball season has left a deep, gnawing void where your rah-rah sensibilities usually live, and you think you might have to slug your way through summer watching tractor pulls on ESPN, then you might want to turn to the Irish for consolation.

As it happens, the Irish have their boys of summer too. And they take their cuts with the ash just as lustily as Bo Jackson ever did. But they do it on the run.

It’s part of an ancient Irish sport called hurling, a game played by five Southern California teams who are allied with the Gaelic Athletic Assn., a sports organization with its roots in Ireland.

When the Irish immigrant population in Southern California began to grow in the late 1970s--and became homesick for the Gaelic sports of their youth--the first of the GAA teams in the Southland, the Wild Geese, was formed in the Orange County area. Two teams based in Burbank, the Harp and Shamrock and the Young Irelands, were formed about five years ago, as was a San Diego team, Clanna na Gael. A new team, Cu Chullain, was formed in Torrance this year.

Each of the teams plays the two traditional Irish sports: hurling and Gaelic football. Both the sports involve propelling a ball either into the mouth of the opponent’s goal at one end of a large field (about 140 by 80 yards), or through the uprights above the goal (through the uprights scores one point; into the goal scores three). The only true difference between the two games is the size of the ball and the way it is struck.

Gaelic football is played with a round inflated ball about the size of a basketball. The ball is moved down the field by kicking it or punching it with the fist, and it can be carried for three steps before being bounced on the ground, kicked, hit or passed to another player.

In hurling, the ball, or sliothair (pronounced “slither,” with a hard “th”), is about the size of a baseball and is struck with a stick made of ash, about the length of a baseball bat but flared to a flat surface at the contact end. It is called a hurley and is carried by each player.

There are no time-outs in either game and only three substitutions are allowed.

Both games are quick, highly physical, relentless and as much a part of the Irish soul as the Celtic harp.

“It’s a sport that’s in everyone’s blood,” said Gerry Mackey, the former coach of the Wild Geese. “It’s a game that you sort of need to be raised with. It’s like baseball in America. And if you’re Irish, you take it with you wherever you go.”

Most of the players in Southern California are native-born Irish, said Mackey (about 75% of the Wild Geese come from Ireland), but occasionally an American player emerges. More rarely, he even may become a top-notch player.

Kevin MacDonnell is one. A pilot for Delta Airlines who lives in Irvine, MacDonnell learned both sports from his Dublin-born father when his family lived in New York. He was so taken by the games that when he was stationed in Yuma, Ariz., as a Marine fighter pilot, he frequently made the trip to San Diego to play with Clanna na Gael. He is the president of the Wild Geese, the first American to hold that post.

“I always played with my dad when I was a kid,” he said, “and I played with the local pastor when I went to college in Florida. I took my stick with me everywhere. I also played American sports, but in my mind (hurling and Gaelic football) are far more exciting. I don’t think there’s anything more thrilling than seeing a good football or hurling team. There’s much more action.”

And the action can be hair-raising, particularly in hurling when a player takes a hard, running swing at the ball just as a defender is closing in. Bloody knuckles are common. Intentional hard body contact is forbidden in both sports, but there are plenty of unintentional--and unavoidable--knocks.

Inevitably, peace is made and both sides usually retire to a local pub after the match to verbally replay the day.

“The games are played at a ferocious pace at times,” said Mackey, “and the players go at it like they’re playing an all-out championship. It can get a little hot. But then you go back to the bar later and leave it all on the field.”

If you want to come out to watch the action, the GAA teams play most Sundays from April to late July beginning about 3 p.m. Here’s where they play:

* The Wild Geese--The Novitiate of the Brothers of St. Patrick, 7820 Bolsa Ave., Midway City. For information, call (714) 646-8855.

* The Harp and Shamrock and The Young Irelands--Hjelte Field, Burbank Boulevard, one mile east of Balboa in Encino. For information, call Tom Nolan, (818) 785-7800.

* Cu Chullain--Wilson Park, Torrance (on Crenshaw between Carson and Sepulveda). For information, call Des Redmond, (213) 542-1013.

* Clanna na Gael--University of San Diego. For information, call Brendan Quinn, (619) 268-9897.