This weekend hurling fans in Croke Park will enjoy what is arguably the greatest sporting spectacle in the world - most spectators present in the stadium, I suggest, would disagree only with the inclusion of the word "arguably", writes John G. O'Dwyer.
These days we take it for granted that every hurling game is played at an incredibly fast pace thanks to players who are fitter than ever, improved playing surfaces and better hurleys. It is easy to forget the contribution that high-standard, high visibility, sure-flight hurling balls have also made to the quality and spectacle of the modern game.
In the early days of the GAA, sliotars were much larger than those in use today. In 1904 the official GAA rules set the minimum weight for the sliotar at 7 ounces - about double the prescribed weight today. It is safe to conclude, therefore, that a century ago the large, cumbersome horse-hair packed sliotars and smaller-bos hurls contributed to a much slower and less spectacular game played mostly on the ground. This view is supported by the fact that, after the abolition of the side posts in 1910 - which offered a point for what would be a wide today - most games were characterised by the scoring of relatively few points. By the 1930s sliotars had been reduced to approximately the size we know today and higher scoring became common.
However, the difficulty of developing a uniform and durable hurling ball that would retain its shape through 60 minutes of intense competition, especially in wet conditions, remained. The man who did most to study and eventually solve this problem is now largely forgotten by GAA historians.
Johnny McAuliffe was born in Tullybrackey, Bruff, Co Limerick in 1896 and was by all accounts a hurler of some note in his youth. He was also known for his expertise as the ball mender for local hurling teams. In 1919, Johnny moved to Limerick city and found a job in a bakery. He joined the then famous Young Ireland Club with which he subsequently won a Limerick senior hurling championship.
Retired from hurling in 1925, he remained active in Young Ireland, both as a committee member and in what was then an important role - mending the unreliable sliotars of the day. Eventually he was asked by fellow committee members, who were experiencing difficulty in obtaining uniform hurling balls, if he would go into the business of manufacturing sliotars. He took on the challenge and made some sliotars that were welcomed by players as superior to any that were currently being used. However, the biggest advantage of the new McAuliffe sliotar was its water-resistant quality - unlike all previous hurling balls it did not become heavy in wet conditions.
Word of the Tullybrackey man's skill spread quickly and soon he was making a variety of hurling balls suitable for clubs, schools and colleges, along with the standard sliotar for the Munster Hurling Championship. The fame of the McAuliffe sliotars spread beyond Munster and demand was so great that Johnny retired from his job in the city bakery to concentrate on his ball-making business. From his premises in Thomas Street, Limerick, sliotars were soon pouring out in large quantities and the McAuliffe was soon the sliotar of choice in all the principal hurling areas, both within Ireland and overseas.
After the erection of the Cusack Stand in Croke Park in 1937 spectators complained about their an inability to pick out the flight of a brown hurling ball against the background of a crowded stand. Inevitably, McAuliffe was the man requested to find a solution. In response he produced the first white sliotar, which solved the problem of visibility within a crowded stadium. However, one difficulty remained - that of making a ball that would retain its whiteness when it came in contact with wet grass.
Here, a Limerick tannery came to the rescue when, at Johnny's request, they produced the first hurling ball with a hard wearing, distinctive white finish, which was nor only waterproof but also maintained its shape and colour over a much longer period. The new product was an immediate success and quickly came into use at all major hurling matches and remains the model for the stitched, two-piece, pigskin sliotar, with a core of cork, with which we are familiar today. Indeed, the white sliotar is now of crucial importance since it eases the major technical challenge of capturing for television a tiny ball moving rapidly over an area approximately twice the size of a standard soccer or rugby pitch. McAuliffe devoted much of his life to the perfection of the sliotar and thanks largely to the man from Tullybrackey, you can be sure that Sunday's match ball will retain its shape and snow-white finish throughout the game.