Moldovan rescue with cache of ash

AS HURLEY-MAKERS mourn the disappearance of Irish ash, help has come from an unusual quarter - Moldova.

A chance conversation between a north Cork manufacturer and a migrant worker from the eastern European country has helped ease the shortage of ash needed to make the camán.

Billy McAuliffe, who makes 10,000 hurleys a year in his factory in Charleville, is a member of a Irish Ash Hurley Makers’ Guild. The guild, with Coillte, is trying to locate stocks of ash abroad because of a shortage in Ireland.