A series of stunning photographs of the Manx sporting tradition of cammag has been released online.
Commissioned by Culture Vannin and captured in St John’s last year by Brook Wassall, the photographs offer a startling presentation of an ancient Manx custom thriving in the Island today.
On St. Stephen’s Day (December 26) communities come together from across the Isle of Man, to play the Island’s traditional national sport, cammag.
A famously anarchic but good-natured game played between the North and the South each year at St. John’s, there has been an unprecedented growth in popularity in recent years, with more people both playing and watching year on year.
Cammag
Hockey sticks or otherwise are distinctively discouraged for the game. Rather, sticks cut from fallen trees or hedgerows are the prized and the equipment of choice for this sport.
The array of sticks on the field on 26 December is a joyful sight to behold.
An early form of the game that later developed into hurling in Ireland and shinty in Scotland, cammag bears obvious relations to hockey, but with very important differences.
Famously, the game is said to have no rules.
However, of course, there are informal ways to behave, first and foremost of which is that players are safe and enjoy themselves. Beyond that, as long as the spirit of the game is maintained, anything goes!
Cammag will take place at 2pm this year, on December 26 on the Fairfield by Tynwald Hill in St John’s.
The game will finish at 3pm, after which everyone will head to the Tynwald Inn for Manx music and friendly post-match analysis, where all are welcome.
All of Brook Wassall’s 50+ photographs are available online, on the Culture Vannin website or Flickr page.
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