Paul really enjoys music, especially the piano. He mostly plays jazz and funk. He said it's harder to play these days, what with work and family life, so now he often plays late at night with a pair of headphones plugged into his keyboard.
Paul also enjoys playing sports. His preferred sports are tennis, golf and squash. He told me a lot about the other sports Ireland is famous for, too. The GAA is the "Gaelic Athletic Association." It is the largest sporting organization in Ireland, and it is technically all amateur, although pretty much everyone takes it very seriously.
The two main sports under the GAA are Gaelic football and hurling. You'll have to look up a YouTube video of Gaelic football and another of hurling. Often, they just call the first one 'football' or just 'gaelic.' I was very confused the first time someone invited me to watch a football game on T.V. with them. I have lived in other countries, so I was pretty sure they didn't mean American football, but I thought they meant soccer since the rest of the world usually calls soccer 'football.' You can imagine how confused I was when I first started watching since it was neither of those sports and, in fact, something completely different!
You may have guessed that both football and hurling are based off Gaelic Irish origin. Another thing I found very interesting is that you have to play for a team from where you live. Once you sign up to play for a team, that is your team for life! There is no trading or changing teams. Most people join when they are in school, so if you move to another part of Ireland when you grow up, you travel back and forth to continue playing for your home team.
