Kerry rule preventing Aidan Walsh from playing hurling with Kanturk
Former Cork dual player Aidan Walsh is unable to play hurling with his native Kanturk due to a "rule in Kerry". The 2010 Sam Maguire winner plays football with An Ghaeltacht, having transferred to the west Kerry club earlier this year.
"You can play hurling within Kerry, but you can't play outside of Kerry. I can't play for Kanturk," Walsh told the BBC's The GAA Social podcast.
"I could play hurling in Kerry but the closest club (Tralee Parnells) is nearly an hour and a half away.
"It's an old rule, which I tried to get around it, but unfortunately couldn't. I love playing hurling. My father is manager of the hurling team in Kanturk. My brother and my cousins all play. There's a fierce connection there."
Walsh said he should have transferred two years ago but he had a strong desire to help Kanturk's rise through the grades.
"Thankfully, we got up to senior, senior," he said.
"It kind of made it a bit easier but it's still very difficult. It was very hard to leave it. Family is more important now. Just having my son be able to watch me play for however many years I've left is more important than anything."
Walsh admitted that he has struggled in adapting to life in an Irish speaking area.
"I am trying to try to grasp it and learn it; even playing with the Gaeltacht, it's a new experience because it's all Irish, all the team talks and everything is in Irish," he said.
"I just try to leave my football do the talking. I like to think that I have a bit of knowledge about the game, but when I give my bit of tactics, what I feel we should be doing or what we could do better, I have to give it in English.
"I've been trying to learn it. It's getting a bit frustrating now for sure. My three-year-old son is talking Irish and I'm struggling to know what he's on about."
Since moving to Kerry, and also due to ash dieback making materials hard to source, Walsh has quit the hurley making business. However, he still has one customer: Patrick Horgan. He most recently made one for the Cork forward before April's league final
"I always kept a few planks aside for him," said Walsh.
"I still have my workshop at home in my parents' place. His hurley is different to every other hurley. I don't know how he plays with it. His wrists are just huge, that he's able to use a heavy hurley.
"The unfortunate thing about that is everyone wants a Hoggie hurley then. I'd be like to them, 'I can make you a Hoggie hurley, but I don't think you'll be able to swing it because the bas is so big'. It's a fair lump of hurley. It's unique. I have one of his old ones in the workshop.
"When kids call, I'd always show it to them because they'd always be fascinated. Some of them can't even lift it. I don't know anyone else that plays with that kind of hurley."
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