There once was a guy called rick
Who was afraid to get sick
He took a cab
With the money he had
And ended up in a town called Limerick
Oh jeez try to come up with a good Limerick Limerick yourself then….
There are not so many good words that rhymes with the word. But the town, on the other hand, is awesome.
We took a bus, from Dublin and ended up in the Limerick is the fourth most populous city in the State. A beautiful town by the water that dates at least from the year 812 and is Ireland’s first City of Culture (designation for 2014). In the city centre we got the most amazing steak and also a lot of live music at The Locke bar by the water.
This was also the first place where we encountered Hurling (no the sport not wwhat you first thought) …and try to get it explained for us. That was kind of impossible to get by this time (the case was sort of solved in Tipperary but still some rules are (in mild words) weird.
Hurling (Iomáint) is a game play with a specific bat (Hurley), and a small leather ball (sliotar). It is an outdoor team game and has been played for over 3,000 years. It is said to be the world’s fastest field team game in terms of game play and looks completely insane the first time you watch it. The sliotar can be caught in the hand but only carried for 4 steps (except if you carry it on the end of the Hurley), you can struck it in the air or the ground (with the bat), kick it, slap it. But one player can only handle it twice when the sliotar is in his possession. I told you it looks insane and it gets worse.
One team consist of 15 hurlers and you can score in two ways but the goals are formed by two posts, connected above the ground by a crossbar. If the ball goes over the crossbar, a point is scored and a white flag is raised by an umpire. If the ball goes below the crossbar, a goal, worth three points, is scored.
You can see scores like Kilkenny 2.02 – Cork 1.00 and this is what one guys tried to make sense of here in Limerick. But when he started to explain that 1+2 = 7 he sort of lost me. 
But got it figured out later although I will not even try to re-explain it here. You got to be there to understand (?!) it.
When you watch the game it seems as if you are allowed to do anything even though the referee once in a while raises the yellow card (which works as in classic European football), but as a beginning Hurley viewer you never have a clue why he raises it seems it seems as if the situation looks exactly like a situation seconds before.
Anyway the sport is played in UK, Argentina, US and Canada so if you do have a chance to watch it, do it. It is indeed fun.
The Limerick poems do remain from here but if you want to find the centre you have to visit the Library. Do not forget to stroll by the river Shannon and visit the Castle. It is indeed beautiful
Maddies blog 