The GAA's National Hurling Development Manager has said that the sport should be on the curriculum of every school in the country.
Kilkenny's Martin Fogarty has taken up his new position in Croke Park, and in an interview with the the GAA's official website, he said he hoped the popularity of the sport would increase under his watch.
"My job is not about All-Irelands", Fogarty revealed. "It's about trying to get more people hurling and get more people enjoying it. I would have a belief that hurling should actually be on the curriculum in every secondary school."
Martin Fogarty. Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/Cathal Noonan
While hurling is predominantly played on Irish shores, Fogarty added that the idea of adding the sport onto the Curriculum came from a Swedish teacher he made contact with as part of a European project.
"We had these people over with us and we brought them to a hurling match and a lady teacher from Sweden said to me - "If we had this game it would be on our curriculum." Up to that I looked at hurling as hurling. But she was dead right."
The former Kilkenny selector feels that the game could be added into the history curriculum, as other cultural subjects are already taught around Ireland.
"If you ask yourself 'why do we study history?', for example. Why do we study wars and battles and people killing each other? Why don't we study something that's alive? It's like our Irish dancing or our Irish music. You take art, why do we paint pictures in schools? Why do we play a tin whistle? Why not hurling?"
It certainly raises food for thought...
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