The medical committee of the GAA has recommended that the wearing of helmets and face masks be made compulsory for all hurlers aged up to and including 18. Eithne Donnellan, Health Correspondent, reports.
The move follows the intervention of a Waterford eye surgeon, Mr Stephen Beatty, who in July called on the organisation to make fully-protective headgear mandatory during all hurling matches.
He made his appeal after a study at two hospitals showed the game was responsible for hundreds of eye injuries, some of which caused irreversible blindness.
In a letter to the president of the GAA, Mr Seán Kelly, he suggested the GAA follow the lead of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association and change its rules in relation to protective face-masks to prevent these "entirely preventable and horrendous injuries". The GAA referred Mr Beatty's concerns to its medical sub-committee for consideration.
Yesterday Mr Beatty told The Irish Times he had been informed in a letter from Mr Kelly of the medical committee's recommendation, which was also endorsed by the organisation's hurling development committee. The issue is now likely to go before next year's annual GAA congress.
Mr Beatty said he was delighted with the progress but wanted to point out that more than 80 per cent of the eye injuries he sees are in players over the age of 18.
Therefore he feels protective headgear should be made compulsory for all players at all levels.
"Can you imagine a situation where seat-belts would be only compulsory up to the age of 18. At 19 they would be taken off to show they were adults," he said.
"The GAA is moving in the right direction but blinding injuries in hurling can't be eliminated until wearing a face-mask is compulsory for all players at all times," he added.
A study of eye injuries at Waterford Regional and Cork University Hospitals earlier this year found the game responsible for 308 eye injuries between 1994 and 2000. It found five players had been permanently blinded and a further 12 had permanent eye defects.
Since Mr Beatty wrote to the GAA after the study was released there had, he said, been six further blinding injuries among hurlers seen at both hospitals.