One of most memorable childhood activities for me was travelling out to various ditches around the country to find ash trees suitable to make hurleys. No one doubts the magnificence and majesty of Ireland’s great national sport. One sports commentator claims that the day of the All-Ireland Hurling Final should be declared a National Holiday such is the atmosphere and the following around the sport. However, the hurleys that beat the ball around the park have to come from somewhere.
Although they are all carved from ash trees, hurleys are made to different designs. The goal keeper’s hurley can have a wider base to increase the chance of stopping a fast ball as it heads towards the goal mouth. Some counties have their own specific designs that have been passed on over the centuries. I was mystified as a young child watching one of Ireland’s great hurley makers explain all these differences and subtleties.
Despite all these differences, hurley sticks carry one thing in common: they are all carved from ash trees that grow out of the side of a ditch. An ash tree that grows straight out of the ground is no good to the hurley maker. Every hurley has to have a spring in it; when it is pressed to the ground and pressure is placed on the hurley the player cannot afford to have it crack or split. The grain of the wood travels from the base of the hurley into the handle following the line of the tree growing out of the ditch and then turning its branches towards the sunlight. If the tree didn’t have a bend in it then the hurley maker would only be wasting his time – the hurley wouldn’t last too long into a game.
The Christian journey, when it moves beyond mere devotionalism and delves into the spiritual journey, can make little sense of straight lines. It is often the knarled knots and sweeping bends of our lives that reveal the face of God.
Let nothing perturb you. Nothing frighten you. All things pass. God does not change. Patience achieves everything. – St Teresa of Avila