Ice Hockey: One of Ireland's
Newest National Games?
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SEAN DOOLEY on the ice with the Dundalk Bulls who have just won the Irish Ice Hockey League Championship.
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JUBILATION after winning the Irish Ice Hockey League Championship
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By CATHOLINE BUTLER
Gaelic football and hurling may be Ireland's national games but Canada's national game of ice hockey is quickly becoming a game to be reckoned with in Ireland. Canadian hockey players, coaches and general managers can now be found on hockey teams throughout the island of Ireland.
One such Canadian-born hockey player is Sean Dooley of Nelson, British Columbia, who plays with the Dundalk Bulls hockey team. The team recently won the Irish Ice Hockey League (IIHL) with a thrilling championship victory over the Dublin Rams.
What's really amazing about the Bulls is that this was the first year that they played professionally in the division 1 IIHL league. Dooley has dual citizenship - he was born in Canada and his father, John Dooley is from Forkhill, South Armagh, Northern Ireland and is also the mayor of Nelson.
As with the Belfast Giants ice hockey team [whose name is derived from the legendary Irish folk hero and mythical hunter-warrior giant Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn McCool)], the Dundalk Bulls are also named for one of Ireland's greatest legendary epics.
The Dundalk Bulls are named for the great cattle-raid of Cooley. This was the invasion of Ulster by the armies of Maeb and Ailill and their allies, seeking to carry off the great Brown Bull of Cuailnge (Cooley).
At the end of the hockey season, Sean returned home for a short visit with his family in Nelson and that was where I caught-up with him to ask him about playing for the Dundalk Bulls and about his hockey background in Canada.
"I played all my youth hockey in Nelson, up until bantam and then I was drafted into the WHL when I was 15-years-old," said Dooley, "but, I ended up not playing in the WHL, because I really wanted to get a scholarship and you can't get a scholarship if you play in the WHL.
"So after that I decided to go the Junior B route and that's the Nelson Leafs. I suffered a bad back injury and had to quit playing hockey for three years. I worked hard to repair the injury and was eventually able to get back playing hockey again."
It was while he was in Ireland on summer holidays that he decided to check-out the new ice-hockey rink in Dundalk. Sean said, "it just happened that they were holding a hockey school that day. I told them that I was from Canada and played hockey and they invited me to help-out with the hockey school for the summer. Later, I tried out for the team and made it. So it was really out of the blue the way it happened."
In the IIHL with the Dundalk Bulls, Sean played division one professional teams from Sweden, Latvia, and also a team from Concordia University in Montreal. Next year, because they have won the league and playoffs, they have been accepted into the European Cup.
Sean also coaches all the youth development hockey teams in Dundalk. He said, "when I first went to Dundalk, the kids were just learning to skate and play a bit of hockey and now we have over 200 kids enrolled.
"My girlfriend, Chynna Pope is from Boston and she is the head of the figure skating at Dundalk. When she first started there were 10 kids, now she has over 400 kids enrolled. Actually, hockey is becoming so popular that five more rinks are to be built throughout Ireland."
A year and a half ago, Ireland hosted the World Championships and they have just won the bid for the under-eighteen Nationals this year, and it will be played in Dundalk. So, that just goes to show how serious hockey is in Ireland.
For more information about the Dundalk Bulls Hockey team, visit: www.dundalkbulls.com.
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