It's a National Hurling League game on a Sunday afternoon between Galway and Laois in Pearse Stadium, Salthill. The familiar clash of the ash brings a roar from the crowd, as splinters of timber fly through the air. Before they even hit the ground, a new hurley is thrown in from the sideline. It has a hoop around the bos, black tape just above that, with some towel grip at the top. Stamped on one side is "T.J. Larkin, Hurley Manufacturers for over 100 years. "

Most people know him as Tom Joe Larkin, farmer and hurley-maker from Killimor. Two of his six children, Damien and Francis, help out at his workshop, especially when the hurling league and championship are in full swing, as he struggles to keep up with orders from all over Ireland, the UK and the USA.

Tom Joe carries on a craft started by his great granduncle, Philip Larkin, over 100 years ago. Back then Philip, a carpenter, obliged the local lads of the area by fashioning "hurls" from the roots of ash trees. He passed on the craft to one of his nephews, Frank. Now that craft rests with Tom Joe, a son of Frank.

His small workshop is also a hurley museum and a place where folklore is passed on. However, there are no glass display cases or spotlights here. Instead, a replica of a hurley used by Pat Madden in the first ever All-Ireland hurling final played in 1887, stands beside the workbench among a bundle of other hurleys, all with their own tales to tell. Pat was captain of the Meelick team which represented Galway that day, when they lost out to Tipperary. The hurley he wielded was made by his great granduncle.

Six months after the match, Pat Madden was evicted from his farm for nonpayment of rent. The story goes that he gave his hurley to the local postman, Bill Tierney, who put it away in the thatch of his own house, where it remained undisturbed until 1984.  Bill’s son, Willie, later presented the hurley to the Sam Melbourne collection in Thurles and Tom Joe made the replica from the original.

Resting on a shelf to the left of the bench behind some rolls of tape and a can of WD-40 oil is an old axe. "My grand-uncle once used it to shape hurls bit-by bit and by hand. The axe was made specially for this type of work and came all the way from America", Tom Joe explains, putting it back, before then taking down what looks like an old branch hanging beside the fireplace. In fact, this is the forerunner of Pat Madden's hurley. Standing with his back to the fire, Tom Joe holds it firmly with both hands before proudly describing its humble origin. "My uncle found it in a hedge. It was rounded at the butt and this end was used to hit the ball. There were no bandsaws, no planes and no spokeshaves then, so they just cut a young ash tree that was only about four or five years old."

It was all a far cry from the way the modern hurley is made. "First, you have to cut the top off the tree and dig it out by the roots, making sure they are perfect. The trunk of the tree is then cut into boards, an inch thick. They are stacked and left to season in an open shed for a couple of months, to allow the sap to dry out of them until they are ready to be used. The curve in the grain of the timber corresponds with where the root of the tree went into the ground," explains Tom Joe.

He then demonstrates his art by taking a template of a hurley and placing it on top of the board, making sure that the bos end of the template is over the root end of the board. He marks out the shape of the template with a pencil before taking the board over to the bluebladed bandsaw. It whirrs into life and his steady hands cut out a 'squarish' looking hurley. Next, he goes out to the shed where the specially adapted Italian furniture-making machine stands. He places the rough-cut hurley with three other similarly cut hurleys into the machine. It has a hurley template on top. With its cutters spinning noisily, it begins to spew dust as it fashions the four hurleys to the exact shape of the template. Tom Joe then uses a belt sander to smoothe its shape and get the correct weight on the handle. Finally he bands and tapes the hurley. “Banding gives it more strength and puts more weight on its head.” he says.

Since hurleys were first cut from ash boards their shape has changed gradually. In the early days, they had no “grip” and the bos was narrow and slender, bearing more resemblance to a hockey stick. The hurley stick has even undergone subtle changes in recent years. Tom Joe takes a 37” stick from a bundle of senior hurleys awaiting collection beside the fireplace and says, "See how the bos has more contact with the ground. Even in the last year, players are asking for the handle to be rounder and lighter."

He puts the hurley back. Beside them stand another bundle of small 24" hurleys that will be used by the future stars of the game. Over the keystones of the fireplace a calendar and an all-star team picture vie for space with a poster of country crests and colours. The open fire helps to keep the workshop warm while keeping the dampness at bay. Ash cutoffs, ashwood shavings or other bits of ash that are not needed, keep the fire burning. Hurley makers have tried many other types of timber but only ash can make a perfect hurley. “The Irish ash is still the best even though some manufacturers are getting ash from Sweeden and Denmark”, says Tom Joe.

He has a small woodland area close to his house with 500 ash trees now reaching the optimum age of 35 years. Last year, he planted a further two acres of ash.  But, he still sources trees from other areas around the country with Coillte being one of the major suppliers.

"Television has really put hurling on the big stage. There are far more juvenile players in the game now than ten or fifteen years ago, especially in the cities," he says.

At the moment he makes over 5,000 hurleys each year. Once farming was his main source of income with the hurley-making enterprise providing a useful second wage. Now the roles are being reversed. Soon a new workshop will be built next door from where he hopes to double his output. Here, Tom Joe will continue to pass on the craft to his sons, Damien and Francis.

However the old workshop will still have a part to play as a sales area for the hurleys. The fire will still burn and it might even have some spotlights and glass display cases to hold their hurling treasures for all to see!