Strange Game

I went out walking at lunchtime and, mercifully, no birds suddenly appeared every time I was near. But I saw something else strange.

There was a group of men, on a large green field, hitting a ball about with sticks. The field had rugby posts but the posts had football nets. They were picking the ball up, running with it and then hitting it into the air. It all looked most singular. I approached a spectator and asked him what this game was.

"Hoorlin", he replied.

"Hoorlin?", I asked. "How do you spell that?".

"H-U-R-L-I-N-G", he explained.

I told him I'd never heard of it and asked if it was a new sport. 

He told me that the game had been played for "over a hundred years in Ireland".

I assured him that I'd lived in that free state for nearly ten of those hundred years and that I'd certainly never heard of it.

He turned back to watch the game and I walked on. Thinking:

The Cheeky Bastard. Over a hundred years! He must think I just stepped off the boat!