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SPORT |
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SPORT |
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Besides Soccer (the National Team is much followed even if it hasn't ever gained great success in European and World Championship, and usually they watch English Premiership on television) and Rugby (Ireland is one of the stars of the 6 Nations tournament), there are other two important local sports that very famous in Ireland.
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Gaelic Football is spectacular and exciting: the ball is like the one of soccer, but the players can kick it, touch it with hands or hold it while they run like in rugby. Passages can be made with a kick or hitting the ball with a punch. There are two tries similar to those of Rugby. If one throw the ball under the bar they obtain 3 points and 1 point they throw the ball over. In the championship there are matches between each county of the 4 provinces and winners play finals in the All-Ireland matches that take place at the end of summer, beginning of autumn, at Croke Park, in Dublin, and are the most followed sport event during the year. |
| The other Gaelic sport of ancient origin is
Hurling. It's also cited in many tales of Irish mythology (it's thought that Chuchulain was very great player). It is similar to Hockey but it is not played on ice and it's much faster and violent. Goals and scores are similar to the one of Gaelic Football but the ball (sliotar) have the same size of the one of baseball. The ball can be held with the mace or in hand and passed hitting it with the hand's palm. |
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Much diffused are also Horse Races (there are splendid stud farms in many areas of Ireland and numerous races on which you can bet during all the year) and Golf.
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