The prevalence of ash dieback disease means healthy ash is becoming more and more difficult to source for hurley-makers.
By John Harrington
In 2010, Coillte were confident that, based on ash tree plantation, Ireland would be self-sufficient in the supply of Ash for hurley-making by 2022.
Fast-forward 12 years and unfortunately that estimation has sadly proven well wide of the mark.
Everything changed in 2012 when ash dieback disease arrived on these shores.
Chalara Fraxinea, to give the disease its Latin name, is a fungal disease that’s believed to have existed for centuries in eastern Russian and parts of China.
When trees from those regions were brought to Europe, the disease quickly spread through the continent to the point that it’s feared the ash tree species will eventually be totally wiped out.
Ash dieback is highly contagious and because it’s windborne it quickly moves from one plantation of trees to another. Spores of the fungus are carried in the air, settle on leaves during the summer months, and spread through the rest of the tree from there.
When a tree is infected, it effectively rots from the inside out, making it good for nothing other than firewood.
The prevalence of ash dieback in Ireland, allied to the restrictions of planting ash, means that things will get worse before they get better and land owners can get a return on their investment in planting ash.
This problem is compounded by the fact that it is difficult to get felling licences to cut down existing ash, so trees that are currently healthy may well be infected by the time it’s possible to harvest them.
An ash tree that was infected by ash dieback diease.
Hurley-makers have had to import ash from abroad to make up for the short-fall in Irish ash, but now this supply-line has been threatened by ash dieback as well as the war in Ukraine where many hurley-makers source their ash.
Back in March, Canning hurleys were forced to go out of business because they simply couldn’t source enough ash planks anymore, and it seems inevitable that more hurley makers will soon find themselves in the same tough corner.
Earlier this year, Emmet Martin, of Martin Hurls in County Antrim, eloquently outlined just how challenging a time this is for hurley-makers all over the country.
"I am one of maybe 60 or 70 part-time to full-time hurley makers, and there are about five or six different wood suppliers in Ireland, and they would supply all of us with our wood,” said Martin.
"But year on year it's becoming harder and harder to get, there's more of a wait time and when the phone rings to say they have 300 planks of wood, you have to be ready to just take them there and then, because it's like gold dust.
“I've been at this 10 years and every year it gets harder and harder, but now in this past six months it has been critical - it's almost impossible to get.
"I have contacted other small hurley making business all over Ireland and they're all the same. I see Canning Hurleys has closed, they would have been supplied directly from Ukraine and that's been cut off.
"I talked to guys in Wexford, Donegal, Dublin, Derry and it's the same everywhere, so it's extremely worrying.
"I have very little wood left here for adult hurls, I'm just trying to look after our local clubs here and whatever I have left I will give to the people that have supported me throughout the years.”
Pictured at the harvesting of hurley butts in Teagasc, Johnstown Castle in 2016 were (l to r) John Jordan, hurley maker; Prof Gerry Boyle, Director Teagasc; Rioch Fox, Farm Manager Johnstown Centre Teagasc; Pat Daly, Games Development Director GAA; Noel Culleton, retired researcher; Ger Shortle, Head Johnstown Centre Teagasc; Seamus Dunne, Senior Inspector Forest Service (DAFM). Photo Pat Moore.
The GAA has been proactive in trying to come up with innovative solutions to what’s an increasingly dire problem, with the Ash Tree Society taking the lead in this regard.
Headed up by the GAA’s Director of Organisational Culture, Planning, and Development, Pat Daly, it also includes key stake-holders from Coillte, Teagasc, the Department of Agriculture, the Irish Guild of Ash Hurley Makers, and the Limerick and Tipperary Woodland Owners.
The Ash Tree Society has focused on three key initiatives:
1: Breeding Ash trees that are resistant to disease.
Generally, one in 100 trees show a high degree of tolerance to ash dieback. So, after a trawl of more than 20,000 ash trees around the world, 200 were selected and used as breeding stock.
2: Doing more with less
This involves using ash cuttings from higher up the tree as distinct from root ash and using a process of jointing and gluing to develop a ‘reinforced’ hurley.
3: Developing a hybrid hurley
This involves a synthetic handle and shaft with a piece of wood, not necessarily ash, glued to either side of the shaft with a view to replicating the inherent qualities of the ash hurley.
The first strategy, breeding ash trees that are resistant to disease, is a long term one and it will take 15-20 years before the impact of this will take effect at grassroots level. This means, by necessity, that the focus for now will be on developing ‘reinforced’ and ‘hybrid’ hurleys.
Hurley makers who might have been resistant to going down that route are now beginning to realise that they may have little other option.
Hurleys made from material other than ash will also have to become more of a focus in the coming years.
Former Dublin hurler, Ryan O'Dwyer, preferred to hurl with a Cultec synthetic hurley rather than an ash hurley.
There is already a tradition of this going back as far as the 1960s when a Westmeath hurley-maker by the name of Matt Gartland made hurleys from bamboo.
Now, long-established Clare-based hurley-maker, Torpey Hurleys, are also making hurleys from bamboo, with a number of inter-county hurlers opting for what Torpey are calling their ‘Bambú’ hurley.
Synthetic hurleys made by companies like Cultec, Mycro, Azzurri and Reynolds Hurling have also become increasingly popular in recent years.
More and more hurleys made from something other than the traditional ash-root may not be the only change we see in the coming years.
In much the same way that the official GAA sliotar has been standardised, it is expected that specifications that determine how a hurley performs will also be standardised in the near future.
Currently the only specification in the rule-book regarding hurleys is that they must not measure more than 13cm at their widest point, but this isn’t enforced, and nowadays most adult hurleys are between 16 and 20 at their widest point.
Westmeath hurler, Aonghus Clarke, pictured playing with a Torpey Bambú hurley, which is made from bamboo.
It might seem like an unlikely scenario, but there’s technically nothing in the rule-book to prevent someone using a hurley more akin to a shinty stick to take sideline cuts that can travel huge distances.
So, the likelihood is that a minimum measurement for the widest point of a hurley will be introduced instead, and consideration is also likely to be given to what the breaking point of a synthetic or hybrid hurley should be because if a hurley is unbreakable it presents some safety issues.
Tradition has always been a big part of the GAA but so has innovation, and a lot of creative minds are hard at work figuring how to best overcome what may be the eventual death-knell of the traditional ash-root hurley.
There are challenging times ahead, but necessity is the mother of invention.
* This article first appeared in the programmes for the 2022 All-Ireland SHC semi-finals which were published by DBA Publications.
The programme for the Limerick v Galway All-Ireland SHC semi-final can be purchased HERE.
The programe for the Kilkenny v Clare All-Ireland SHC semi-final can be purchased HERE.
You can peruse DBA's library of GAA programmes that are available to purchase HERE.
