Since when is it a crime to have a hurley?

JANUARY 6 has always been a family day for us, and this year several clan members took advantage of the good weather that afternoon for a walk along the seafront of my home town of Greystones in Co Wicklow.

What a picture of contented respectability we made as we walked three abreast: my retired father, my schoolteacher uncle and I.

Evidently not respectable enough for the local Garda Síochána though as one of its ranks drove by, stopped and alighted from his car, eyed us suspiciously and demanded to know our purpose.