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Hurling should be played with helmets. If it's just a group of friends in a park casually passing the sliotar (ball) to each other and taking practice shots then okay, but not if they were playing a proper game.

+1 to helmets. In youth, the very similar sport of lacrosse actually has a higher risk of concussion than football [0].

[0] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10883126/

You need to wear a helmet with it. Years ago a colleague played in the local team and one weekend took a hurley (the stick with the metal band at the end) to the face and had his jaw broken. Never forgot his helmet again.

Any serious hurling game since at least the early nineties is always played with helmets (as a legal requirement, but also just common sense). Sure, you might have a friendly knockaround without them, but not a real match.