Irish Lads Launch New Hybrid Sport

A group of Irish lads have combined their interest in golf and football to create a brand new sport. Footee takes all the rules of golf, with each hole having a par, and blends it with football. They say it is a "skillful and addictive game that mixes the passion and strength of football with the elegance and tradition of golf." 

Ireland's only Footee course is located at Dublin City Golf Club, Ballinascorney, Firhouse, Dublin 24, and is just five minutes from Exit 12 of the M50. The course is due to open this Saturday, May 4, and judging by the response online, they will be inundated with players wanting to test their skills. It will also be more affordable than a traditional game of golf where green fees can be anything above €30. A round of Footee is played over twelve holes, will take just over two hours to complete, and has a standard price of just €10. That price will even be reduced to €6 if you are a student or unemployed.

The guys running Footee call it a novelty sport, but it seems to be a great day out, and their website says, "get active, get outdoors, get involved." As well as the massive interest on their Facebook and Twitter accounts, there has been some controversy brewing online. One disgruntled Facebook user posted this message on their wall: "AAFG -The Asociación Argentina de Footgolf - Footgolf not Footee!" The charge seems to be that Footee is a rip-off of FootGolf; a sport set up in 2007 which uses an identical concept.

The exact origins of FootGolf are not clear, but it is thought to have come into existence in a number of different countries in 2007, and in 2009, the International FootGolf Association was established. FootGolf is now played in over thirteen countries, including England, and each nation have their own association or governing body. FootGolf even has its own World Cup, and the first staging of the event was held in Budapest in June, 2012. Eight different nations were represented, with over eighty competitors taking their chance, and Hungarian Béla Lengyel was crowned champion after two days play. Here is a promotional clip from the event below:




You would have to say that both sports look very similar, but it seems to be the first time anything like this has been introduced to Ireland. It is unclear if there are any plans to introduce more custom-made courses anywhere else in the country, and for now Firhouse is the one-stop shop for Footee, or FootGolf, or whatever you want to call it. It does look like it would be a good day out, and I even gave it a go myself. Check out the video below of me trying my best to hone my limited skills of both golf and football in trying to land the ball into a basket about the size of the Footee holes -- Maybe it is a little bigger!

Early Start For Dawn Chorus Day

International Dawn Chorus Day  takes place this Sunday, May 5, 2013. According to the dedicated website, the day is a celebration of “nature’s daily miracle” where all types of birds sing at the start of a new day. The first International Dawn Chorus Day was held by the Urban Wildlife Trust in Birmingham in 1984. Since then, the day has grown in notoriety, and each year more events are scheduled to mark the occasion. The commemoration encourages people to get up early, or stay up late, to hear the first calls of the vocal songbirds. The sounds are best experienced in thick woodland areas, but most of us can hear an ample amount of singing in our own back gardens.

The Mooney Show on RTÉ Radio One will be taking listeners through the dawn chorus from midnight on Sunday, and throughout the show, contributors will explain the sounds and songs of many birds. This way, you can listen out for the individual birds, and recognise which sing earliest, and which pipe up latest. Almost all of us are familiar with some common garden birds, and these too will be heard on Sunday. You can start to watch out for birds now that might be around your garden, and then listen out for their distinctive calls during the dawn chorus. In this video below, I have labelled some of the most common birds you might find rummaging around your garden. Watch out for some of these birds, and listen to their individual song in the SoundCloud file below. 

Each bird will have its own song, some more distinctive than others. Now that you have seen the birds, and will be more familiar with them when you see them, take a listen below to some of their songs. 

If you are a garden listener like me, you will most likely come across the sounds of the more common birds. Here are three of the most common that you are likely to hear if poking your head out for a quick listen in the early hours of Sunday morning. 

THE WOODPIGEON

Source: birdsofbray.blogspot.com

The woodpigeon is one of those birds with a very distinctive song. Its song is a three note cooing sound like “whoo-who-huhu”. The woodpigeon is one of the top 20 most common garden birds in Ireland, and unlike crows, jackdaws and rooks, it is easily distinguishable from other species. As you can see it has a thick grey body, and is known to have white and green patches on the side of its neck. The woodpigeon stays in Ireland all year round, but their stocks are boosted further by immigrant birds from the continent in winter. The woodpigeon will be the baritone of the dawn chorus, although their song is more ever-present in the evening, rather than the morning. 

THE BLACKBIRD

Source: http://farm3.staticflickr.com

The Blackbird is extremely common in Ireland, and is a regular fixture in parks and gardens around the country. It is recognisable over the crow, jackdaw, and rook because of its yellow beak. The blackbird's song comes in burst of around four seconds, and is a shrill whistling. The blackbird is a ground feeding bird, and can often be seen on lawns and among leaves looking to root up worms. During the dawn chorus, unlike the wood pigeon, the blackbird is best heard at early dawn, and will be bellowing its squeaky song over the lower toned woodpigeon. It was originally a woodland bird, or so researchers believe, because its low notes travel quite well through dense woodland. 

THE ROBIN

Source:http://aipetcher.files.wordpress.com

The Robin is related to the blackbird, as well as to the song thrush, but this bird is more common in Irish gardens than any other bird. It is very recognisable, not only from Christmas cards, but because of its red breast. Although known as the red-breasted robin, the red colour often extends up over the robins face, around its beak, and between its eyes. The robin feeds on insects and worms, but it will also eat scraps of food or bread left out or discarded by people. It will be one of the first birds to investigate a bird feeder if you fill it with broken pieces of bread. Within minutes, you will see one perched on a fences or twig, before it swoops down to the food. Its song is kind of a high pitched wobbling whistle, and when joined by the blackbird and song thrush, their tones are often difficult to decipher. The robin will sing early, but in urban areas, streetlights may also trigger the robin to sing at night. 

International Dawn Chorus Day is a great excuse to get up early, go and sit in your garden on a bright May morning, and enjoy the sounds from the trees and chimney tops around you. Especially for those of you used to a busy lifestyle, listening to the dawn chorus on a lazy Sunday morning can be very relaxing for the day ahead.