This article is from page 12 of the 2011-07-19 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 12 JPG
A CLARE builder is set to revolutionise the way hurleys are made with the invention of the world’s first mobile hurley making unit.
East Clare man Flan Marsh is currently awaiting the official patent on his mobile hurley making unit, which will allow him to make customised hurls for an entire team during a single hour-long training session.
Flan has kitted out a van with everything he needs to customise the hurleys to suit an individual players needs and hopes to start visiting clubs and schools all over Ireland in the coming weeks and month.
“I was making hurleys away in the wood shed and I started thinking, if Mohammed won’t go to the mountain that I’d go to Mohammed – that’s where the idea for the mobile hurling making unit came from,” he said.
“So the idea is that I will go to clubs and to training all over the country and I’d make the hurleys, customised specially for them, while they train. I have everything I need in the van to make the hurleys exactly to their specification while they train.
“The hurls themselves would be 90 per cent made already and all I would be doing is putting in the special requirements that individual players want. I’d easily be able to kit out a full team during a training session.”
A roofing contractor by trade, Flan launched himself into the hurl making business when the recession hit the building sector in 2008.
“I wouldn’t be doing this at all only for the recession. They are tough times so I guess it was just a way of trying to make a job for myself,” continued Flan.
“I first come up with the idea of making a shatter-safe hurley, so when the hurl breaks in the middle that a part of it wouldn’t fly off. After that the idea just came to me to have a mobile unit for making the hurleys.
“Everyone has their own style of a hurl that they like, so this isn’t just a service for the elite players. I think younger players would be amazed to see what goes into making a hurley as well. It would be an education for children and adults as well; a lot of people would never have see a hurley getting made before.
“I think I’d be providing a service for people – mothers and father won’t have to go driving all over the country to get their children the hurleys they want. They won’t be wasting time and money; the hurleys will be delivered right to them.” For more info visit Flan’s website www.shattersafehurleys.com.