‘Hop Irish’ Paper napkin 20 cm x 20 cm
I’d like to play Hop Irish. I’ve not seen it played before.
I suppose it would be written in chalk, like the Scotch version. Each square would be foot-sized. The playing ring would need to be two metres in diameter.
If one can generalise about the Irish, which you can’t, but if you could, the task of the game would be to become confounded by it.
Numbering and layout suggests the player hops backwards. The starting point also, by being in the middle, is inaccessible.
The player’s skills therefore would lie not in the throwing of the marker as in the Scottish version, nor in the athleticism in the hopping, but in the general scrutiny and pondering.
The configuration is like a wishing well which encourages a ring of players who are able to collaborate in a communal wishing/wonder.
The game makes no division between winning and losing.