Women in the GAA

Cork delegate Tracey Kennedy speaks at the 2014 GAA Congress

WOMEN IN THE GAA

KARL O’KANE



ONE of the last great bastions of the male dominated GAA landscape was stormed a week and half ago.

It got banner headlines, but it was more a case of the latest stage of a quiet revolution, in a long running struggle.

Just as Tyrone’s Roisin Jordan was nominated as the first ever female County Board Chairperson in the history of the GAA in Ireland, Tracey Kennedy was taking the Vice-Chair in Cork.

The two appointments were just the latest in a long series of significant milestones in the recognition of the role women play in the GAA, that goes far beyond the cliche of washing the jerseys and making the sandwiches for the men.

When the GAA was founded way back in 1884, Michael Cusack and co, had no great vision for the role of women, apart from cheering on their men.

At the time, sporting organisations across the world were set up by men, for men and the GAA was no different.

When the first official camogie game was played in July 1904 one of the rules stated that players couldn’t use their regulation heavy, ankle-length skirts to block the sliothar.

At the time there was a popular belief that when it came to leisure or sporting activities, everyone possessed a fixed amount of energy.

The fall out for women was the belief that if they played sport they wouldn’t have the required energy to carry out their ‘duties’ in the home as mothers and wives.

That’s a world away from the prime athletes who populate Gaelic games nowadays, including Cork dual star, Briege Corkery or Rebel footballer, Juliet Murphy.

TG4 has done wonders for the profile of Ladies GAA, but there is still a long way to go.

The appointment of Roisin Jordan as Tyrone Chairperson is just one of a number of landmarks in recent years.

AIG’s decision to sponsor all Dublin sides, including the ladies footballers and camogie team may make eminent corporate sense, but it was still the right thing to do and a significant milestone.

The same goes for the moves by AIB (club) and Liberty Insurance (county) to sponsor and meld together the hurling and camogie Championships in a groundbreaking move.

Big business have the clout and the resources to make a difference and change perceptions.  The aesthetics of their moves towards integration across the GAA are certainly right anyway, and that’s a decent starting point.

These days there are a significant network of 515 camogie clubs and 1100 ladies football clubs, based in Ireland and across the world.

There are still huge differences in the lot of the top stars though, but maybe the equality between club and county players is something camogie and Ladies GAA should cherish as well as challenge.

At the top level male inter county players get 50 cent per mile expenses, while camogie and ladies football players don’t get a cent.  The money simply isn’t there.

The GAA’s annual turnover at central level is in the region of 60 million euro, while the Camogie Association’s income was just over 1.2 million per annum in 2013.

384,000 euro of this came from the Irish Sports Council with a further 250,000 euro grant from the GAA.

Camogie’s income nationally is equivalent to a county like Donegal, while it is well short of the whopping 3.7 million euro income Dublin recorded in 2013.

Women and club players in both codes are not permitted to join the GPA (Gaelic Players Association), so Ladies GAA and their camogie counterparts are in the process of setting up a players union.

There’s a potential membership of 1200, with 400 already understood to have signed up.

All the while, the rise of women, up through the ranks of officialdom is welcome.

Earlier this year, GAA President Liam O’Neill made a conscious decision to honour women in his annual awards, with 13 of the 15 prizes going to women.

It was a fitting recognition of the contribution of women to the GAA and another small step in the right direction from the GAA’s top man, who has been a firm advocate of equality for the sexes.

Meanwhile, Tracey Kennedy is ploughing away in Cork, moving up from PRO to Vice-Chairperson.

“One of the things I said in my acceptance speech was there is no point being the first (woman) if you are the only one,” said Kennedy.

“There are loads of women involved at grassroots - a high proportion of club secretaries and PROs, but as you go up the representation gets smaller.

“You have club chairpersons as well who are women.  Women play a huge role in the GAA, more than the traditional roles of washing jerseys.  Women are at the heart of the club.

“I just discovered I liked administration and the path took me deeper into it. I just like an involvement in the running of the Association I love.”

Up until recently four of the six county PROs in Munster were female - Kennedy herself, Emer Barry (Waterford), Helen Cross (Limerick) and Maureen O’Shea Kerry, but Cross and O’Shea have moved on.

Earlier this year Kennedy stood up to speak at GAA Congress in Croke Park and commented on the lack of women in a male-dominated environment.

“This was my third year at Congress,” she said. “It can be intimidating to speak in your first year.  There is a very big number of people, first of all.

“If I felt there was something needed to be said and I didn’t say it, I wouldn’t be happy.  It takes courage to pluck up guts to do it.

“To be fair they were generally quite welcoming.  I’d never gone with the express intention of speaking. Things do come up and you find you have something to say on the issue.

“At the Derry Congress it was the release of county teams.  That’s my area (as PRO).

“I had an opinion. I am not standing up and speaking just for the sake of it. I am there to represent my county and the clubs, and their viewpoint. We are their voice at Congress.”


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"I am one of a very small number of women in a meeting, but look around Croke Park in the stands and you see women everywhere." (Tracey Kennedy)




NEW CORK Vice-Chairperson, Tracey Kennedy says her swift rise up through the ranks of the GAA hasn’t been blocked by being a women.

And the Killeagh native hopes that some day the appointment of a women to a top job in the GAA, and the wider sporting world won’t be such a big deal any more.

Just last week Kennedy moved up from Rebel PRO to Vice-Chairperson, and is now just one position away from the top job in Cork GAA.

Last Sunday, Tyrone’s Roisin Jordan became the first female Chairperson on the island of Ireland in the history of the GAA.

Eileen Jennings served as the chair of Europe GAA from 2006-2009.

Kennedy - a teacher who is currently working in press and communications for the Irish Cattle and Sheep Association - started out in club admin in her late-20s and moved on to divisional and County Board level.

Kennedy said: “You have to really want it. Going through an election process is fairly difficult for any one.

“You are out there to be judged.  At Congress I was one of very few women inside in a room full of men with lots of experience and authority.

“That could be intimidating.  That’s why it’s so important to get women in to make it less intimidating for others.

“I am one of a very small number of women in a meeting, but look around Croke Park in the stands and you see women everywhere.

“But, looking back I can’t see my path as having been stopped anywhere along the way as a women. Nothing was put there in purpose anyway.

“I never found any impediment.  I came across very few people who would be a bit condescending. It was rare.
“If I was defeated in the election (for the Cork vice-chair) I might be saying something different.

“There are concerns and you have to acknowledge that.  There are always people who are a bit fearful of change. 

“The GAA is in existence 130 years and only now do you have the first women heading up a County Board.

“An older man said to me last week he hoped to live to see the first women Chairperson of the Cork County Board.  Every women’s experience is different.

“Women dream of the day it won’t be news when a women is elected. That would be the goal, that it would be news for other reasons.  There is a long way to go.

“Cork would be seen as one of slower counties when it comes to change, but it is up to women, to put themselves out there, go forward.”



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