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DUBLIN CAMOGIE CAPTAIN Aisling Maher has said last night’s vote to allow shorts to be worn in camogie matches would not have happened without “some form of extreme action”.
The issue came to a head earlier this month when players from the Dublin and Kilkenny senior teams were forced to change by match officials after the two teams arrived to the pitch wearing shorts rather than the mandated skorts.
The Munster Camogie final between Cork and Waterford on 10 May was then postponed the night before the match due to a planned protest by both teams against the wearing of skorts.
Camogie Association President Brian Molloy told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland that he thought there would be a protest at the Munster final but that “it only became clear very late in the day that that wasn’t going to be possible”.
“The players had made it very clear that they didn’t want to play the game in skorts,” said Molloy.
“I couldn’t allow the game to go forward against our rules so we had no choice but to honour the decision that the players had made, and all we could do was defer it until after the Special Congress.”
A motion at the Special Congress last night on whether to give players the option to wear shorts received an overwhelming 98% of the votes from delegates.
Molloy described the vote as a “very important moment” for the Camogie Association and added that the “Association listens to our members”.
Also speaking to Morning Ireland, Aisling Maher said the protests “escalated the speed of change” and that change would not have come without “some form of extreme action”.
Maher said the issue had caused a “huge amount of frustration with players” and there would have been a risk of further games being cancelled or played under protest had the change not been introduced before the Championship.
“You have to see the positives in this,” said Maher.
“The beginning of the All-Ireland Camogie Championship has probably never got as much attention, and hopefully some of that attention will stay with Camogie in a more positive light now we’re into the summer months.”
Molloy expressed a similar sentiment and said he was “delighted to see a lot of people getting interested in camogie”.
He added: “My ask of all of those people is stay interested, stay focused on supporting camogie”.
Molloy said it would be “amazing if all those people who put their support behind the players actually turned up and actually made sure that, for the first time ever, the camogie All-Ireland final was a full house”.
Maher said the vote was a “victory for the sport” but also a “victory for young players coming up, who’ll now be able to make a choice about what they wear while they play”.
Meanwhile, a majority of the delegates from Dublin Camogie Board at last night’s congress were players after Maher said that players felt “isolated from the process” and wanted “visibility and access”.
As a result, the chair Karl O’Brien allowed three players to join members of the county board and they were able to vote.
There was no debate before the vote but Maher noted that there had already been a “huge amount of debate over the issue to date”.
“I guess his (Molloy’s) point would have been, we’ve had the conversation back and forth, so let’s not sit here for an hour having an over and back about it.”
Meanwhile, Maher said that full equality for camogie and Ladies’ Gaelic Football will only come when the associations are integrated into the GAA.
“Until the Camogie Association and the LGFA are part of that, definitely on an Intercounty front it’s more difficult to get that equality.”
However, she said that at club level, many are “operating under a one-club structure” where all players have equal access to pitches and resources.
“There’ll be challenges but it’s just about having an open conversation about where the challenges are, where the barriers are and how we can get past them.”
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This will be one of those head scratching moments on ‘reeling in the years’ in the future.
@honey badger: no one cares if they want to wear shorts or not. just play
@Dominic Leleu: they literally cancelled matches because the Association and its officials did indeed care what they wore.
They had delegates representing them that voted for skorts only last year. The players decided then that they would take their own unilateral action. I agree they should wear what they want but there was a so called democratic process in place…..I think the camogie association and the players have to ask themselves what went so wrong as it seems to be a deeper problem than skorts.
@Toca Stories: you could say they were skorting around the issue….
@Toca Stories: the so called delegates went against the wishes of the vast majority of players last year…it is a problem in many sports that committees and boards either think they know better than players or are so out of touch and outdated in their thinking
@Sean: that’s kind of my point. I assume all of the delegates will resign now or be replaced. This isn’t just about a uniform.
@Toca Stories: By that logic, the whole association should disband and let the ‘players’ re-build it starting from scratch. They would soon find out that throwing a hissy fit is the easy part.
The co-ordinated revolt against the organisation is a disgrace. The silent majority walk away.
Cork hurlers did it in the early 2000′s and Cork hurling has’nt recovered yet.
@Antony Stack: this has been an issue for many years. I have seen this in the last few years where girls between u12 and u16 girls were not allowed play a game as they forgot their scort.
I have been to many of their training sessions and have never see a girl wear a skort for training.
@Antony Stack: Who are these silent majorities as they also seem to be invisible. Could it be they do not exist. Except in the mind of people who lost the vote!
@Dave McAuliffe: how do you forget your uniform when going to a match/practice? That’s just lazy and is irrelevant to the shorts/skirts/skorts debate – if you “forget” your kit you have no kit & can’t play. If you intentionally forget your kit then you should be excluded for a number of games.
Women should’ve always been allowed to wear shorts if they wanted to. Another pointless argument brought up by the GAA that never needed to happen.
@David O Brien: Camogie association not the GAA
@Conor O’Neill: I stand corrected
@Rian O’Callaghan: Sorry for upsetting you. I didn’t mean to.
@Conor O’Neill: Sorry
@Conor O’Neill: Still shouldn’t have happened
@David O Brien: You’re quite right. Women should’ve had the choice. I did have a giggle at the apologies to the numpties getting their oar in! :)
@Ann neylan: Sorry Ann but they are quite right :)
@David O Brien: what about the girls who want to wear tracksuit bottoms?
@David O Brien: how many times do you need to be told: nothing to do with the GAA!!
@Ann neylan: women had the choice last year and voted to keep the skorts. Quit the misogyny nonsense. Just because you disagree with the decision doesn’t make it a man’s fault.
Who cares apart from the 20 people that watch it
@Ekumbe Adesiyan: your English has much improved…..it seems you can speak very clearly when trolling
@Clare Power: thamk you clair ypu know what is say practise is making perfect!
@Ekumbe Adesiyan: there’s always one who’s gonna make that silly comment !! Congrats today that’s you!!
@Ekumbe Adesiyan: it’s played by about 100,000 women and girls in Ireland and around the world. They do not need people watching them to excel. Their skill set is above and beyond what you might achieve in a field of sport. I’d love to see you try and contest against a Camogie player. They’d wipe you out, break your ankle in an instant. You’d need all your God given testosterone to recover and then go and try and play football against them. From what I’ve gleaned from talking with them; they don’t want creeps turning up to watch
@Sinead Cosgrave: hooray!
@Ekumbe Adesiyan: big game at local level all over the country ! It’s not just inter county educate yourself
As a protest, they should shart in their skorts.
Genuine questions. Camogie is a female sport, how come it’s president is male?
What was the composition of the AGM last year, males and females?
@Vincent Alexander: Women who play sports like Field Hockey, Tennis, Golf,Tennis Pin Bowling also wear skorts .It’s not just a Camogie thing. There are many branded styles of Skorts. It’s a matter of choice. That is all the Camogie campaign was about.
@Vincent Alexander: Equality cuts both ways
@Vincent Alexander: the president is elected by the annual congress. The majority of members of the congress are female. The possibilities explaining why a man was elected are (1) the chosen candidate was the best among qualified candidates, (2) that there were no suitable female candidates or (3) that women shouldn’t be allowed to vote. Take your pick.
Now it’s time for LGFA to ammend their policy of letting men play in the women’s game.
What was the purpose of the skort in the first place?
Are they going to make them wear a certain type of shorts now or do they get to chose whatever shorts they want?
@tony hilton: Very much old Ireland, women who wore trousers were shunned by their local communities not all that long ago.
@Brian D’Arcy: i can believe that alright. I myself am trying to get out of the old ways even though im not that old but im old fashioned to a degree if im being honest
Can we finish with. This nonsense now please?
Fr Ted episode
Seems this whole episode has painted
The stupidity involved here is beyond reason. Most Young women stop playing sports just after primary school and anything that helps keep them involved is a plus.
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