Subject: fenian rebel
Culture: Catholic Irish
Setting: Irish Republican Brotherhood / Fenian Brotherhood, Ireland / Irish diaspora mid-late 19thc
Object: 'shillelagh' club / cane
* National Museum of Ireland -- Decorative Arts and History > Curator's Choice
"Hair Hurling Ball with a Camán In today's game of hurling, the ball or sliotar is made of cork and thread with a covering of leather. In times past, balls were made from a variety of materials including wood, a rubber-like substance known as gutta-percha and animal hair. Hair balls especially were common throughout the country and they were made from material which was widely available -- the body hairs of cows and horses.
"The intricate plaited interlacing of the example displayed is one of a small collection of these balls found mainly in Munster and also Co. Sligo. They were made as tokens of affection by both newly married and young single women of the community and presented as gifts to the young hurlers for Mayday during hurling contests. The custom dates from at least the fifteenth century and seems to have died out in the first half of the nineteenth-century.
"The ball is displayed with an early nineteenth-century camán." ....
*
*
*
*
*
