From sideline scrap to match ready

Late on Wednesday evening last Joe Nolan arrived home from work. Lying on his door step were the remnants of a number of hurleys. At a glance he knew what was required of him. Over the last number of years, the Ballinkillen man has gained a reputation for himself as a quality hurley repairer and restorer. Within 48 hours, the owner was able to reclaim for all the world what were four brand new hurleys.

For years now, Joe has repaired broken hurleys for clubs and players all over the county. No job is too big or too small.

“I am like a magpie at a match. If I see a broken hurl I would always bring it home. I nearly cried one day when I saw one going into a bin,” he recalled.

Whatever about an accidental break, Nolan has watched players, out of ignorance, do even more damage to their camán after it has been initially cracked.

“Worse is the lad who cracks the hurl in the middle and it puts it over his leg and makes two pieces of it. You can glue a handle back together and it is perfect. If there is a big long break, the glue will hold it forever. Breaking it in two makes it weaker,” he points out.

Before Carlow’s Joe McDonagh Cup third round game against Down the Carlow man returned a hurley to the Down dressing room which had been broken seven days previously when the counties met in an under 20 Tier 2 Championship game at Netwatch Cullen Park.

It belonged to Cahal Coleman who had scored six points from play for the Mourne County in what turned out to be a heavy underage defeat for the visitors. The story followed what has been a traditional route for the hurley repairer.

“I saw it being broken. I would always keep an eye on it and after the match then I happened to be walking down the side-line. I was talking to one of the Down mentors. Will you give them to me there, I will see what I can do with it,” said Nolan.

During the intervening week, Nolan repaired the hurley by inserting a bamboo handle into the original stick. Rather than interfering with the Down preparations, the Ballinkillen man dropped it back into their dressing room, with a message to a Down mentor.

Nolan and the hurley owner never met but Coleman did make contact during the week to show his appreciation.

“The day we were playing Carlow in the under 20s, I thought I would never have seen it again.

“Before our senior game, I was coming out of the changing room and walked into the big hall where we were doing the warm-up. A player told me someone had left a stick in there for me. I was sort of confused. Didn’t know where it came from. I realised then it had come from last week. There was pure shock. I couldn’t believe it.” Coleman didn’t use the hurley for the senior game but he tried it out in training during the week and was delighted to have got it back.

“He did a fantastic job of it. Unbelievable. I still can’t believe it,” the Down player acknowledged.

Nolan has a long list of such stories.

“It probably started when I was in Offaly. I was there from 1996 to 2007. I worked in Banagher in Offaly. Being a woodwork teacher the two connect pretty well,” he suggested.

“I suppose I started tinkering around up there. We had a huge amount of lads interested in hurling. In my time in Offaly we had Offaly minors, Tipperary minors, Galway minors in the school at various stages.” When Joe came back to Carlow his passion for repairing hurleys intensified. He says it might look like a difficult job but, for him, this is not the case.

“I suppose in order to do some piecing, you need very little tools. Even a hand held jig-saw and a small sander will do it. Probably the most important thing is the right glue and for banding you just need a band jig.” He recalls breaking such an item and receiving a replacement present from Tommy Corcoran the former Carlow and Éire Óg footballer and Carlow Town senior hurler who is now involved with the Setanta Hurling and Camogie Club.” Joe’s passion is a labour of love now.

“You have to look and listen to the wood,” he says.

“I think that is the biggest skill because your piece has to match the feel of the hurl. It has to match the weight and the shape. It is not a blunt force thing. You have to look at the grain in the piece and the piece you are cutting out. You have to feel the length of the joint because the more of a joint you have the more glue you can get in, the stronger the joint will be.” While Carlow continues to battle above their weight on the hurling field, Joe says the county also has some excellent hurley manufacturers and is magnanimous in his praise of these individuals.

“We have wonderful hurley makers in Carlow which people need to support. We have TJ Byrne in Bagenalstown. Oisin McNally who plays in goal for the under 20s. Then you have Dylan Townsend in Burren Rangers. He has some fantastic hurls over there, all using Irish ash and doing some brilliant work. Seamus Jordan as well. As hurling thrives in the county, apart from me, we have three active hurley makers and repairers in the county apart from myself. I only do them as an interest. There are three people there who have developed their business based on the growth of hurling,” he says.

Joe does not look for an income from his hobby but does some work for the Dublin club, Ballinteer-St Johns for which he gets paid. What revenue he receives pays for the glue, tacks and whatever else is required.

“I don’t charge my own club and never will. If a young lad walks into the shed I won’t charge him. I don’t care what club it is. I never ask for anything. I do them for the development squads. For Carlow camogie, what Brendan Hayden would often do is to drop me in a tube of glue or a set of tacks. We work that way. The county seniors as well.” 

Joe also want to make his contribution to a greener environment.

“I never let anything go to waste. I look into bins. I would often pick up hurls. I would see it as so much waste now in terms of ash. There is such a shortage and there are so many hurls out there.

“The glue is so good now. The technology is so good now. If you think about it, lads are hurling with bamboo hurls. If you think about it, a bamboo hurl is so much pieces glued together. When I show the lads the repairs that I do, particularly the difficult ones with new handles, they say that will never hold but if you look at it, there is glue, the very same as a bamboo hurl.” Nolan is also mindful of the passion players have for a particular hurley.

That is the beauty of hurls. Lads get very attached to them.

As well as weight and shape, there can sometimes be a superstition attached to their hurl. When you find that hurl there is nothing nicer. When you find something sweet, you will do anything to keep it.” So it is a win-win situation for Nolan and Carlow hurling.

“I love going out to the shed. I put on a podcast. It is my time. I unwind from work. I think out things. It is my way of unwinding. It is my hobby. It is my connection. It is good for me,” he says.

Note:

See Joe Nolan on Social Media. TikTok-Ollie Vander Hurl Repairs