Poc Fada

How many strikes does it take to cross a mountain? With Poc Fada, you find out by playing.
Players strike the sliotar with the hurley, trying to cover a course through the hills in the fewest strikes possible. There’s no need to be the strongest or fastest: the challenge calls for patience, endurance and a calibrated touch, qualities that allow players to stay competitive well into later life.
The game takes its name from the legend of Cú Chulainn, who is said to have crossed the Cooley Mountains by striking the ball ahead of himself the whole way. From that story, in 1960, came the competition that is still played every year on those same hills, bringing the Poc Fada community to measure itself against the landscape as much as against each other.