Though the baseball season will be long over, the third weekend in November will be a very busy one at Fenway Park.
One day after the football teams from Boston College and Notre Dame square off at the home of the Red Sox, the ballpark will host the Irish sport of hurling for the first time since 1954.
Dubbed the AIG Fenway Hurling Classic, the event will take place Sunday, Nov. 22, and feature the squads from Dublin and Galway.
“This a truly wonderful opportunity for us to exhibit hurling at a high profile U.S. sporting venue, and there is none more iconic than the home of the Red Sox,” Gaelic Players Association chairman Dónal Óg Cusack said Tuesday, via The Irish Times. “We believe that hurling ranks alongside the best sports in the world and the staging of this game in Fenway is part of our commitment to convey that message to a new and influential audience.”
What exactly is hurling, you might ask? Well, it’s a centuries-old sport in which players use wooden sticks (called “hurleys”) to smack around a hard leather ball (called a “sliotar”). Whichever team scores more points (one for hitting the ball between the uprights; three for hitting it into the goal), wins.
Basically, it’s a combination of hockey, lacrosse, soccer and rugby, and yes, it can be very confusing to watch if you don’t know what’s going on. Here’s a basic primer for those interested in checking out the Fenway showcase:
Tickets for the event, which also will feature a performance by the Dropkick Murphys, go on sale Thursday, Sept. 17, and can be purchased at redsox.com/irishfestival.
Thumbnail photo via Twitter/@IrishTimes
