Eirball.International – Shinty and International Rules

The ancestral game to Shinty was brought to Scotland by emigrants from Ireland hundreds of years ago, and the sport has such a similarity to its’ close neighbour, Hurling, that the first Hurling-Shinty Compromise Rules game was played over 100 years ago. Other Compromise Rules sports (also known as International Rules) between Gaelic Games and related sports include Handball-Pelota, first organised by Eamonn De Valera between Ireland and the Basque Country; Compromise Rules Football between Ireland and Australia; Rounders-Softball; Rounders-Baseball; Hurlacrosse and Poc Fada Golf.

The common feature of International Rules sports is an agreement between two similar sports with a shared history to play a game featuring a compromise between the two sets of rules in question. For example, with Shinty being 12-a-side and Hurling 15-a-side, most Hurling-Shinty games have been 14-a-side. Likewise in Compromise Rules Football, 18-a-side is employed as Gaelic Football is 15-a-side and Australian Football is 21-a-side. A compromise in the scoring is also made in the Football version, with the GAA’s Goals (worth 3 GAA points)and Overs (worth 1 GAA point) combined with AFL’s Goals (worth 6 AFL points) and Behinds (worth 1 AFL point) combined to give Goals (worth 6 points), Overs (worth 3 points) and Behinds (worth 1 point).

For more details on these sports and results of games please follow the links in each section below or by clicking on the relevant links in the Navigation Bar.

International Rules

International Rules, also known as Compromise Rules is a term for a number of related sports combining the rules of GAA sports with similar sports from around the World. There is International Rules Football, played between Ireland and Australia, Hurling-Shinty, played between Ireland and Scotland, Handball-Pelota, which is Ireland v Basque Country, as well as Rounders-Baseball and Rounders-Softball (Irish teams v American, Canadian and Britsh teams), Hurlacrosse (Hurling-Lacrosse – Ireland v Iroquois Nationals), and Poc Fada Golf (A Golf Course where players use a Hurl/Hurley to hit the ball into the hole)

Hurling-Shinty Internationals

Featured Image Credits: [1] INVERNESS CITY, SCOTLAND – 18 OCTOBER 2014: This is a scene from within the International Shinty-Hurling match between Scotland and Eire at Bught Park, Inverness, Scotland on 18 October, 2014. By JASPERIMAGE / shutterstock.com [Internet] Available from: https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/inverness-city-scotland-18-october-2014-225347293 [Accessed and Edited by Enda Mulcahy for Eirball 31 October 2022]

Handball-Pelota

Featured Image Credit: [1] New York, USA – May 31, 2019: Daytime image of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Pier 2 handball courts By Alexandre Tziripouloff [Internet] Available from: https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/new-york-usa-may-31-2019-1496618819 [Accessed 2 June 2021]

Rounders-Baseball

[2] Pexels Pixabay green ball on sand [Internet] Available from: https://www.pexels.com/photo/green-ball-on-sand-257970/ [Accessed 31 October 2022]

Hurlacrosse Internationals

Poc Fada Golf

Tallaght Rules Basketball-Futsal

Scottish Shinty

Featured Image Picture Credit: INVERNESS CITY, SCOTLAND – 18 OCTOBER 2014: This is a scene from within the International Shinty-Hurling match between Scotland and Eire at Bught Park, Inverness, Scotland on 18 October, 2014. By JASPERIMAGE / shutterstock.com [Internet] Available from: https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/inverness-city-scotland-18-october-2014-225347293 [Accessed 2 June 2021]

Manx Cammag

Manx Cammag is an uncodified versions of Shinty or Hurling played in the small Gaelic Celtic Island country of the Isle of Man (Ellan Vannin in Manx Gaelic)

Cornish Hurling

Every Shrove Tuesday in St. Columb’s, Cornwall, the game of Hurling is played between ‘Town’ and ‘Country’. The night before resembles a ghost town as all the shops are boarded up and shuttered before the game is played the next day. There are no limits to the numbers of players in the game, with each player playing for either the ‘Town’ or ‘Country’. The game kicks off with the words “Town and Country do your best. but in this parish I must rest.”.

Traditionally, the game was played between the men of St. Columb, but is now played by the children. [3] The Game can last a few minutes or it can last hours depending on how quickly the winning team can get the ball to the goal. The winning player who carries the ball to the goal has the option of keeping the ball and paying for a new one by a local craftsman. The ball is constructed traditionally, out of silver with an applewood core, taken from a local orchard.

References: [1] BBC Cornwall (2003) Hurling at St. columb in the 21st Century [Internet] Available from; http://www.bbc.co.uk/cornwall/villages/stories/stcolumb_hurling.shtml [Accessed 7 March 2018]

[3] St. Ives Web Community TV (2013) The St. Ives Feast and the Silver Ball [Internet] Available from: https://web.archive.org/web/20130819100810/http://stivestv.co.uk/whatson/feast_day_2013.htm [Accessed 13 June 2019]