Gaelic games

[HollyElise]

Hey guys... wanted to let you know the Ohio Scottish Games are coming up June 25. They have caber tossing and other Gaelic sport, highland dance competitions, music competitions (including pipe bands), vendors, clan tents, a lot more and they finish the day with a Ceilidh. They have a reputation for putting on some of the best games in the U.S. If you want more info, just google Ohio Scottish Games.

[SherbrookeJacobite]

Originally posted by emma25
Still not sure what that is...

Hi Emma,

From the website of the Alberta Scottish Athletic Association

Kind of looks like a telephone pole throwing contest, and is the last event usually. Probably the most well known of the heavy events, although usually the point is a bit lost in the translation. The caber is not thrown for height, or distance, but accuracy. You take the 'small' end of the caber in your hands, flip the caber and try to get the other end to land at 12:00 from your shoulders. A perfect 180. This event takes more skill than any of the others (maybe). A world class caber weighs anywhere from 90-150lbs (or more) and is 16-25' long. The biggest challenge of the caber toss isn't in lifting the caber, its in controlling it. You can't out-muscle the caber. Noone is strong enough to fight that much leverage. You have to out-manouver it. Then get it moving in the right direction. Then its all timing and lift to get the large end to hit the ground, and keep the small end rising up, over and perfectly land away from you. In professional competitions they have a qualifying caber, then the competition caber. I finally flipped a couple in competition this year. Hell, I'm just as happy to pick the damn thing up and get it moving correctly.

http://www.heavyevents.ab.ca/

[JKennedy]

Highland Games in Antigonish Nova Scotia:
http://www.antigonishhighlandgames.com/

[LongHairedBeardedKiltie]

Originally Posted by emma25

How do you play it?

And what is "Hurling"?

Emma here is a great site that I used when it first came on the (sadly missed) Tara TV!

http://www.gaa.ie/page/all_about_football.html (GAA Football)

http://www.gaa.ie/page/all_about_hurling.html (Hurling)

and heres a link to the 4 provinces in Ireland that play the gaelic games
http://www.gaa.ie/page/provinces.html