Tipperary GAA Scene

FBD Insurance County Football Championships

This weekend will see the commencement of the FBD Insurance County Senior & Intermediate Football Championships. In total, fourteen games will take place across the county as we look forward to what is expected to be another action packed few days in our football competitions.

Match Ticket & Streaming Details

Tickets for this weekend’s games are now available to purchase online via the ticket section of the Tipperary GAA website at a cost of €10 for adults and €5 for students with a valid ID. Under 6’s are free into our games and do not require a ticket.

From next weekend Tipperary County Board will also be offering a tap and go service at all venues, so if you are not in a position to pre purchase your tickets you can now pay on entry to the venue with your credit or debit care. Please note that Tipperary GAA will continue to comply with Croke Park guidelines which means cash will not be taken at any venue.

Our Tipp GAA TV streaming service continues this weekend. In total this year there will be up to 30 games available to view via our Tipp GAA TV streaming service with the following pricing structure in place, Season pass €120, weekend pass €25 and single game pass €10. You can now purchase your 2022 season pass or desired game in next weekend’s senior football championship via the following link: https://page.inplayer.com/TipperaryGAA/

Tipperary Clubs Draw

The July Tipperary clubs draw took place in The Dome Semple Stadium last Friday. This was draw number 11 which was the final draw of the current draw. Congratulations to all this month’s winners and thanks once again for your continued support. We now look forward to the new 2022/2023 draw which will be launched in the coming weeks. If you would like to join the Tipperary Clubs draw, contact your local club or Lar Na bPairce who will be glad to help you.

Team Tipperary GAA Raceday

The Tipperary GAA Raceday took place last Monday at the Galway Races. This event forms a major part of our fundraising activities each year and continues to be extremely well supported. On the day guests were kept entertained by MC Paul Collins who presided over a very successful auction as well as interviewing a number of special guests. We thank all those who attended or supported our Raceday and made it the great occasion it was.

Ash Dieback

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 twelve 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.

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.

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, & 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.

Sympathies

We extend sympathies to Áine Maher, wife of County Assistant Secretary Tom Maher on the passing of her mother, Mary Doherty, Templetuohy, earlier this week. We also sympathise with all those who have had bereavements in the recent past.