OK, i was worried about that. Here goes (but you should press play and read it simultaneously cause the text doesn't capture all the meaning)...

===================

Grandad: Just imagine that you make yourself a mallet the right length, and you're fully equipped for bicycle polo. And we played it in the squares in Galway.

Me: Oh yeah? in the squares?

Grandad: In the squares.

Me: On the cobblestones ... on the streets ...

Grandad: Yeah, outside the courthouse, amongst other places. And my father: "Never let me see you there again!"

...

Well the mallets we had was very much influenced by the hurley stick. It was a soft..

Me: --ash?

Grandad: ... wooden--ash.

Me: The ball would have been a hurling ball as well? I imagine it would have broken some windows of the courthouse.

Grandad: Well sometimes... as i remember it now, it was bigger than a hurling ball would be, quite a bit bigger...

Me: And you would have three or four players on each side?

Grandad: As many as turned up! Oh yeah, we had a lot of fun.

My mother: Did you wear any equipment?

Grandad: No, no! ... And lots of spectators!

My mother: Oh who came out to watch?

Grandad: Anybody passing by. If my dad was around: "Didn't I tell you!? I didn't want to see you here again!". (laughs)

Me: So that was when you were much younger? Or when you were in college?

Grandad: Ah, we started when we were much younger. But it became ... much more sophisticated when we were in college, yeah. Oh yes, we were much more sophisticated.

My mother: And did you call it bike polo?

Grandad: We didn't call it polo. I think it was some connection with the Gaelic.... Iománaíocht. iománaíocht.

Me: --trying to repeat it--

Grandad: (spells it out) ... And of course, we called our weapon an Iomán.

Definitely the coolest thing I've heard in a while. It'd be awesome just as a story, but it's doubly so archived here. Thanks, Kevin.

Iomán = Driver
iománaíocht = hurling

So they figured they were hurling on bikes. Not polo-ing without horses. I like it.

Lucky wrote:

"So they figured they were hurling on bikes. Not polo-ing without horses. I like it."

One day last summer i was talking about playing bike polo, with him in earshot, and he reacted immediately, saying, "Oh, i used to play that."

I had read on Wikipedia that bike polo was invented in Ireland, but what surprised me from this conversation, which took place just yesterday, was that there were "hardcourt" and "urban" variations.

Obviously there was influence from hurling, but i think that at the end of this snippet here, when he starts getting into the Gaelic, he had simply turned his mind towards hurling, his real love, which goes at least as far back as his days at St Kieran's College, a hotbed of hurling and other Gaelic sports (and, btw, the first Catholic school sanctioned by the Brits after the Relief Act of 1782). In fact, he continues by talking about playing hurling on actual horse polo fields, and how rough those fields were because of the horses, which may be the reason they played "hardcourt".

i have some hurleys back at my parents place, i'll bring them down to the courts at the Worlds in June in Toronto.

oh and here are some hurling videos:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=gtJaPmCtWRE

Wow, i can't fucking believe that.

jonny

no joe--milwaukee is just where it was perfected

no,it was invented by an irish man richard j mCready or something.i play it in the phoenix park on thursdays in the summer and on sundays all through the year....yous should try and set up a team in galway you only need 5 or 6 people go to www.irishbicyclepolo.com for more details.in summer there will be three teams in ireland

The Phoenix
dublin OBELISK
Na Fianna
(the couriers also play bike polo in dublin on tarmac i think its near the docklands i might be wrong tough.....