County identity is heavily reinforced in the local culture by allegiances to county teams in Hurling and Gaelic football.

Hurling () is an outdoor team game of ancient Gaelic origin, administered by the Gaelic Athletic Association.

Hurling is played throughout the world, and is popular among members of the Irish diaspora in North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Argentina.

There is a Hurling team in Brussels, Belgium, called Croabh Rua.

Hurling in particular is strong in east, mid and south Limerick.

County Tipperary has a strong sporting history and is home to the Gaelic Games of Hurling, Gaelic football, Camogie and Handball.

It is one of the two surviving examples of Cornish Hurling ( in a gentler format than its other manifestation at St Columb Major ).

Initiatives such as full-time development officers, and high-profile competitions such as the Continental Youth Championship and a North American College Hurling Championship currently contested between UC Berkeley and Stanford, are helping to bring the games to non-Irish people, while the British GAA is promoting Gaelic games to youth in Britain.

Trim is one of the two most successful teams ( the other being Kilmessan ) in the Meath Senior Hurling Championship, with both clubs between them winning almost half the championships played.

Modern Haggis Hurling is judged on the basis of distance and accuracy of the hurl and a split or burst haggis is immediately disqualified, as the haggis must be fit to eat after landing.

There is a World Haggis Hurling Championship.

There is a World Haggis Hurling Championship.

Páirc Tailteann is located in Navan and is home of the Meath Gaelic football and Hurling teams.

It is also the location of Gaelic Park, home of the Victorian GAA for Hurling and Gaelic Football and the is the only facility owned by an association outside of Ireland.

Hurling is the major sporting activity here.

Sarsfields Hurling Club is one of the oldest hurling Clubs in Cork, est.

The local Gaelic Football club is Dungannon Thomas Clarkes ( Thomáis Uí Chléirigh Dún Geanainn ) and the local Hurling club is Eoghan Ruadh Dungannon ( Cumann Iomanaiocht Eoghan Ruadh Dún Geanainn ), the reigning tyrone senior hurling champions.

An official Gaelic Athletic Association ( GAA ) sliotar, as used in top level hurling competitions such as the National Hurling League or the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championships is subject to strict regulations as regards its size, mass and composition.

Hurling, handball and rounders are also played but are less widespread, as in other parts of northwestern Ireland.

The All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship final was played in Semple Stadium in Thurles to honour the town in which the GAA was founded.

A few of the better understood games, some of which are still played today, include the Ba ' game ( abbreviation of Ball ), Ball Game ( Atherstone ), Ball Game ( Sedgefield ), Bottle-kicking ( usually a leather bottle substitute ball ), Caid, Camp-ball ( early organized from late medieval includes ' kicking camp '), Cornish hurling (' Hurling to country ' & the organized ' Hurling to goals '), Cnapan, Foot-ball ( early organized from late medieval ), Football ( Masonic ceremonial ), Haxey Hood, La soule and Scoring the Hales.

Later that year on 22 October 1939 he made his first senior start when Cork played the newly-crowned All-Ireland champions Kilkenny in the opening round of the 1939-40 National Hurling League.

Occasional use ( mainly transport of beet from Midleton to the Mallow Sugar Factory ) continued for many years after 1963, but even the sporadic usage of the line came to an end in 1988, with the final train to use the track being a passenger excursion for Midleton GAA supporters to Dublin for the final of the All Ireland Senior Club Hurling Championship ( in which Midleton played ).

Gaelic Football and Hurling are played at adult level as well as at under-age levels from an expanding nursery section.

Hurling is a stick and ball game played by teams of 15 on a rectangular grass pitch with H-shaped goals at each end.

In 1889 both the All Ireland Hurling and the All Ireland Football finals were played in Inchicore.

Hurling is also played on a large pitch and is considerably faster than hockey.

The traditional Gaelic games of Gaelic football and Hurling are played by Irish expats, with increasingly local involvement in communities around the world, however no nation has enough players to compete with Ireland.

* Bando ( sport ), a sport similar to Hurling, Shinty and Field Hockey formerly played in Wales and cognate with Bandy

The All-Ireland Hurling Final ( Cluiche Ceannais Iomána na hÉireann ) is the ultimate match played in the annual All-Ireland Hurling Championships ( senior, minor and under-21 levels ).

Hurling or Hurling the Silver Ball (), is an outdoor team game of Celtic origin played only in Cornwall, United Kingdom.

Irish Hurling is more a forerunner of modern Hockey played with a Hurley stick ( in Irish a camán ) used to propel a ball called a Sliotar.

Hurling is very similar to the game of cnapan ; a Celtic form of medieval football played until the nineteenth century in the southwestern counties of Wales, especially Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire.

The Orkney ' Ba ' Game ', which has been played on Christmas Eve and Hogmanay every year since the mid 19th century, has some similarity to Cornish Hurling.

" Hurling to goals " was played on a pitch similar to that of modern-day football, and had many strict rules, similar to those of football and rugby ; this was common in the east of the county.

" Hurling to country ", however, was often played over large areas of countryside and despite its name also involved goals ; this was common in the west of the county.

The club is the largest juvenile sporting body in the community here providing Gaelic football, Hurling and Camogie to girls and boys from 4 yrs of age up to adult. The area also houses the home ground of prominent junior football club Home Farm F. C., and St Kevins, the schoolboy club for which Liam Brady, Ian Harte, Stephen Carr and Damien Duff played.

Lynch was later named at midfield on the GAA Hurling Team of the Century and the GAA Hurling Team of the Millennium

In the centenary year of the Gaelic Athletic Association in 1984 Lynch was named on the " Hurling Team of the Century ".

Shortly after his death in 1999 Lynch ’ s reputation as one of the true greats of the game was further cemented when he was named on the " Hurling Team of the Millennium ".

Having scored an early second-half goal to effectively kill-off the opposition, McGrath went on to be the first man from the town of Wexford to receive an All-Ireland Hurling winner ’ s medal.

St. Bronagh's GAA club, have won the Down Senior Football Championship on two occasions, 1976 and 1998 and the Down Junior Hurling Championship on one occasion in 1994.

The present World Record for Haggis Hurling was set at 217 feet by Lorne Coltart at the Milngavie Highland Games on 11 June 2011, beating Allan Pettigrew's 180 feet record which had stood for over twenty years.

He was posthumously honoured in 1984 when he was named, by popular opinion, in the right wing-forward position on the GAA Hurling Team of the Century.

He was named in the same position on the GAA Hurling Team of the Millennium in 2000.

Although his career ended shortly before the prestigious Hurler of the Year award began, he was posthumously named in the full-forward position on the GAA Hurling Team of the Century in 1984.

He was personally honoured by being posthumously named on the GAA Hurling Team of the Century in 1984.

He was not named on the GAA Hurling Team of the Millennium in 2000, with the full-forward position going to Cork's Ray Cummins.

Kilkenny are the current All-Ireland champions, after winning their second title in-a-row and sixth title in seven years, in defeating Galway in the replayed 2012 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Final by a scoreline of 3-22 to 3-11 on 30 September 2012.

Over the decades since 1926, it has established itself as the ' Mecca ' for Munster hurling followers, hosting the Munster Hurling Final on many memorable occasions.

On 14 February 2009, the new state of the art floodlights were officially switched on by GAA president Nickey Brennan before the National Hurling League game against Cork.

He was, however, named in the left wing-forward position on the Kilkenny Hurling Team of the Century.

His aunt, Peggy Carey, won four All-Ireland camogie titles with Kilkenny and his granduncle, Paddy Phelan, was an iconic hurler of the 1930s and was selected on the GAA Hurling Team of the Century and the GAA Team of The Millennium.

* DJ Carey videos on KilkennyCats Hurling Forum

Muine Bheag / Erins Own have been winners of the Carlow Senior Hurling Championship on fourteen occasions, they last won in 1970.

Outside of the county, St. Rynagh's were the inaugural winners of the Leinster Senior Club Hurling Championship, in 1971 and have won the title on a further three occasions, 1973, 1983 and 1994.