The Practical Distiller by Samuel Mcharry

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The Practical Distiller by Samuel Mcharry

Shortlisted for The Last Word Listeners' Choice Award, Irish Book Awards 2025

'No matter if you're a die-hard hurling fanatic or you've never seen a match, Old Parish is well worth a read.' Hot Press

'Entertaining and thoughtful' Irish Independent

'There aren't enough of these books ... The whole thing is a delight' Malachy Clerkin, Irish Times

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Hurling is Ireland's national game - a source of fascination and pride, even to people who have never played it. Ciar n Murphy, a lifelong club footballer, used to be one of those people. Then he spent a summer trying to play hurling with a tiny club in the West Waterford Gaeltacht. Along the way he embarked on a quest to understand the history, geography and mystique of this extraordinary sport.

Old Parish is the club of Ciar n's father, a club where relatives of his are still deeply involved, and possibly the only place brave (or stupid) enough to take on a forty-one-year-old newcomer to the game. Predictably (and at times hilariously), Ciar n finds out just how difficult a sport hurling is to pick up when you're in your sporting dotage, up against men who've played it since childhood.

Ciar n also explores why hurling is played in only half the country; he investigates the origins of hurling clubs' antipathy to football and the difficulties of establishing hurling in new areas; he looks into the mysteries of hurley-making; and he seeks to understand why, when a hurling legend refers to the sport as 'the greatest game ever played by any man', he has to be taken seriously.

Anyone who has ever watched hurling knows that it is something unique and extraordinary. Old Parish explains why.
SKU Unavailable
ISBN 13 9781023124980
Title The Practical Distiller
Author Samuel Mcharry
Condition Unavailable
Binding Type Paperback
Publisher Anson Street Press
Year published 2025-03-28
Number of pages 90
Cover note Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.