"Imríonn na buachaillí iománaíocht leis an liathróid san ionad áitiúil."

Translation: The boys play hurling with the ball in the local center.

[deactivated user]

In the game of hurling the ball is called a "sliotar" so that is what aught to be used here instead of "liathróid".

[scilling]

Perhaps those boys are making do with e.g. a handball to play hurling, if they don’t have a sliotar at hand?

[LeeInCalif]

... or perhaps the boys have to play with a "ball" because, like those of us at this point in the Irish tree, they haven't yet learned "sliotar!" (I am hoping for a little hurling vocab. before end of the tree...)

[John365571]

What is a local center?

[Neal356674]

Just to see if I understand the difference here. Lár and ionad can both be translated as "center" But ionad means "center" in the sense of a collection of locations related to a similar function or purpose, ie, city center, sports center, shopping center, etc. Whereas ionad means "center" the sense of being physically in the middle of something. Am I "swimming in the right direction" here?