Robert Carry meets Aaron Murphy, the Canadian captain of the Dublin Rams, one of the star teams on the scene in Ireland’s newest sporting hit – ice hockey
“The Dublin Rams are a pretty diverse team,” says Aaron Mur-phy, captain of the city’s ice hockey league contenders. “We’ve got guys from Slovakia, the Czech Rep, Canada, Ireland, France. We’ve even got a player from Turkey. It’s a real mish-mash of different people.”
The Newfoundlander, who came to Ireland from Canada two-and-a-half years ago, arrived in a country with a virtually non-existent ice hockey scene, which was in clear contrast to the nation he left.
“Ice hockey at home is like GAA over here – it’s like a religion,” says Aaron. “People in Canada can’t get enough of it. Mine was a typical Canadian story, where you learn how to skate right after you learn how to walk.”
He has seen the game develop rapidly in Ireland since the construction of an ice hockey rink in Dundalk. “When I first moved here there wasn’t a lot going on outside Belfast, but now, with the rink in Dundalk, people are coming out of the woodwork,” he says. “There are a lot of Irish players and a number of ex-pats from countries like Sweden, Canada and Poland.”
Aaron got involved in the embryonic ice hockey scene as soon as he arrived in Ireland, and when the Dundalk Ice Dome played host to the Division III World Champion-ship finals last year, tickets to experience the game were an in-demand resource.
“The president and founder of the Dublin Rams is also the president of the Irish Hockey Association,” recalls Aaron. “When I first arrived [in Ireland] I contacted the association to say I was willing to play, or coach, or help out wherever they needed me. When Ireland hosted the Division III World Champion-ships I couldn’t play because I didn’t have a passport, but I helped out with the organisation.
“When the president established the Dublin Rams he asked me to come on board to play, to evaluate prospective players to help put together a team that would be competitive. I was captain right from the start.”
Aaron, who now lives in Dublin, feels that some of the other teams were somewhat hamstrung by their own selection policy, and he was determined that this wouldn’t be the case with the Rams.
“I put together a team that I thought would be competitive, not just because they were Canadian. Our policy was that we would not have anyone on our team that might get hurt or that might be a detriment.”
He continues: “We shot for the stars and decided to get the best players we could, regardless of country of origin. The Latvian Hawks [another team in the league] kind of shot themselves in the foot by saying they wanted a team made up only of players from Latvia. They might be turning away better guys because of their nationality.”
Aaron admits that he felt the varied backgrounds could present problems, but none so far have been insurmountable. “Sometimes the language barrier kicks in,” he concedes. “But everybody speaks the same language on the ice.”
With his team put together for the inaugural season of the Irish ice hockey league, Aaron and the characteristically diverse Dublin Rams took to the rink.
“We beat the Belfast Bruins in game one, and they had some ex-pros on their team,” he points out. “In week two we played the Latvian Hawks. We handed them their walking papers – we beat them 7–1.”
The Rams face an even tougher third match of the season when they go up against the much-fancied Dundalk Bulls. “Everyone thinks they’re going to run away with the league,” says Aaron. “But we’re tied at top of the table with two wins each. We’re not going out there to lose. We’re going to surprise them this weekend.”
But although he is confident his team can put in a good performance, he is also very aware of how skilled the Dundalk side are: “They’re a good team. They don’t have a lot of Irish players but they’ve a lot of Eastern European guys who are young and very strong. They’ve been the talk of the town in Dundalk and they’re very much the home team favourites. But we’ve some good players too.”
The new hockey league has caught the attention of several media outlets and the number of fans attending the matches has been steadily increasing. However, this is by no means a shock to the Newfoundlander.
“I haven’t been surprised by the reaction of the fans,” he points out. “I’ve said all along that if someone goes along to see one game they’ll be hooked.”
Aaron continues: “If you like physical sports you’ll be blown away by hockey because there’s no out-of-bounds and when you’re knocked onto the ground you’re not falling on grass, you’re falling on ice. And it’s fast – you can skate faster than you can run so everything happens at pace.”
Ice hockey is known the world over as a sport that is not for the faint of heart, and Aaron says that the men taking to the ice in the Irish league are no different than competitors in leagues elsewhere.
“There’s some tough guys in the league, I can assure of that,” he says. “We’ve got one or two on our team, and the Bulls have some fairly tough individuals, but they’re all good hockey players too. There’s no one there just because they’re a hard-man.”
However, Aaron admits that there can be some scary moments out on the ice: “When there’s a guy who’s 15, 16 stone coming at you at 30km per hour, you quickly become aware of how tough a game it is.”
Ice hockey is also well known for the occasional fight, but the Irish league has so far been spared the all-out wars seen in ice rinks elsewhere.
“There’s been some individual skirmishes but there hasn’t been any full-on brawls,” says Aaron. “Most of the guys have to get up in the morning and go to normal jobs so unless it’s really necessary, nobody wants to go out there and get battered or to batter anyone.
“There are a lot of kids who go to these games and as a collective group of teams we don’t want kids thinking that’s what it’s all about. If the sport is going to grow in Ireland there’s got to be a high standard of play set, but also a good example of sportsmanship.”
And Aaron’s sport certainly seems to be connecting with youngsters around the country. “I get weird messages,” he says. “I get these e-mails from all sorts of people – from 12-year-old boys to 20-year-old girls asking where they can get a jersey or a supporter’s t-shirt.”
Although things are at an early stage, Aaron believes all the signs point to a successful and long-lived ice hockey scene here. “Ireland is going to be a good hockey nation,” he says. “It’s early days but it’s only going to get better.”
