‘Expect to see something this weekend’ as female intercounty players step up protest in search of equality

When the Irish women’s soccer team threatened to go on strike just under six years ago, many people hoped it would be the end of female athletes being treated like second-class citizens. But last Monday the country’s senior intercounty ladies’ football and camogie players joined forces to declare they would only continue to play this season’s championship “under protest”.

Apparently that phrase – “under protest” – was used due to the fast-changing nature of the relationship between the national sporting bodies and the players. Watch this space, in other words.

Monday’s announcement, made by senior intercounty captains sitting in their respective team jerseys in a hotel near Dublin Airport, followed the publication two months ago of the Gaelic Players Association’s (GPA) State of Play report, which detailed the demands put on female intercounty players and the disparity in resources between them and their male counterparts. The players believe that both the LGFA and Camogie Association have failed to engage with them in a meaningful way after the report was published despite what the players believe to be reasonable requests relating to, in particular, doctors, pitches, physios, post-match meals and showers.

One women’s team were given a pitch that a men’s team had refused to play on because of its condition - a woman player then tore her ACL after falling into a rabbit hole

Monday’s announcement was born out of frustration, says Tipperary ladies football captain Maria Curley.

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“This isn’t a shout-out or issue with our local county boards, or our local sponsors or anything like that,” she explains. “Because we do know that those people are volunteers, and they work very hard. And we’re very appreciative of that. And in most of the counties, their hands are tied in terms of financial support.

“What we don’t have is support from our national governing bodies [NGBs]. From what Tom [Parsons, GPA CEO] has communicated to us, we won’t be able to do this alone and it’s going to take collaboration between the NGBs for this support to come, for us to be able to reach a minimum standard charter that we will be happy with, and that will be fair and equal in comparison with the men.

“So yes, there are obviously financial aspects to this, but there are other services that financially don’t impact as much. A simple example would be this weekend – we have our one and only All-Ireland Series championship match in Tipperary. We have been told we can’t have Semple Stadium.There are many facilities that we don’t have normal access to.”

Other examples are plentiful. One team were given a pitch that a men’s team had refused to play on because of its condition – and a woman player tore her ACL after falling into a rabbit hole. Some players gave up part-time jobs to play intercounty football. Seventy per cent of intercounty women’s teams don’t have doctors on the sideline. Virtually none of the female players get mileage or expenses.

Unnecessary bureaucracy is another big problem for women footballers and camogie players.

“[Let’s say] you go to Santry Sports Clinic – you need to have pre-consent from the LGFA to get a scan,” says Curley. “They won’t do it unless you have consent. But then you go to your consultant, and you do have consent for that review. But they might say, ‘You know what, I think we need a CT scan’. But you don’t have time to send an email [to get consent between] when you’re in the room with your consultant and going down to the CT scan.”

There is also evident frustration at the lack of communication from the steering group set up to look at integration between the LGFA, Camogie Association and GAA. The steering group is currently in a listening phase, inviting all shareholders and those involved in Gaelic games to explain what they feel will work best. Former Tyrone ladies footballer and GPA diversity, inclusion and equality manager Gemma Begley outlined the GPA’s experience with the group.

“I think it was around April [that we met them], and there was no feedback, no real follow-up,” she says.

Both Begley and Curley point out that they understand integration takes time, and they don’t want it to be rushed. But time is ticking for the minimum standards charter to be adopted and implemented. There are no centralised agreements on direct mileage expenses and only some progress in developing best practices for supporting high-performance female county players through all their playing commitments.

The current male charter between the GAA and GPA guarantees 70c per mile in travel expenses, a nutritional allowance of €20 per week, meals after training and games, access to strength and conditioning in gyms, physio and medical support, training gear, match kits, leisurewear, hurleys, helmets, footwear and complimentary tickets for league and championship matches.

In comparison, 79 per cent of female intercounty athletes don’t have regular access to a doctor, 49 per cent don’t have regular access to a nutritionist and 49 per cent do not have access to a sports psychologist. On top of that, 36 per cent do not have access to a physio, 36 per cent do not have full access to a strength and conditioning programme, 53 per cent do not have access to a gym, and 71 per cent do not have suitable pitches available to them at all times.

Curley says nothing has been ruled out regarding the players’ protest. “I think we all hoped by coming together on Monday and by shedding light on it that the governing bodies would look at it and go, ‘Oh, God, we better actually start listening’. But having looked at the statements that were released, to me it doesn’t look overly promising.

“So it seems that we’re going to have to do a little bit more in order to get them to maybe listen to us and maybe take us seriously. So I expect that we will see something in our championship games this weekend. What that is I’m not so sure, but I’d expect to see something.”