‘I would stand with getting rid of the skorts’ - Dublin’s Emma O’Byrne supports calls for change in camogie

In Emma O’Byrne’s already six seasons on the Dublin camogie team, first joining the senior panel as an 18-year-old, few matters have bothered her more than the enduring requirement to wear the traditional skort instead of regular shorts.

Speaking in Parnell Park at the announcement of Staycity Aparthotels taking over as headline sponsor of Dublin GAA, including men’s and women’s football, hurling and camogie, O’Byrne said players should at least have a choice.

O’Byrne says no one she knows wears the skort in training anymore, or anywhere else for that matter, beyond in competition.

“I would stand with getting rid of the skorts, to be honest,” she said. “In my opinion, we do kind of want to emulate the lads’ game, and I know equality is a big thing for the girls’ side of things.

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“And I obviously understand that there is a tradition in the skort, and that camogie has such a heritage, and a lot of history behind it.

“But I just think it’s the same, a lot of the white shorts were changed, it’s just a simple switch like that. And players should have a choice, female players should have a choice, to be honest. That’s just my opinion.”

[ Clodagh McGrath speaks out against ‘archaic’ rule mandating skorts in camogie ]

She highlighted the fact no one of the Dublin team wears them at training: “Exactly, I can’t think of anyone who wears the skort during training, so yeah, it’s just a matter of match day.

“I always think like the only way it could be done is say on All-Ireland day let’s say, the players should just show up in shorts. That’s the kind of way I would imagine it.”

“I know there’s been votes over the years and it’s always the case that girls are against it, so I just find it kind of confusing and I wonder will there be a push for that again and if we’ll make any progress on that.”

Earlier this year, Thomas McCurtains, the only GAA club in East London, launched their Shorts not Skorts campaign. The club called on delegates attending the Camogie Association’s Annual Congress to approve a motion proposing that skorts should be replaced with shorts as official playing gear.

The club also released a report entitled The Long and Skort of it: what purpose does the Skort play in today’s game? Arising from a survey of 240 people, it detailed that 82 per cent of respondents preferred to wear shorts than skorts when playing camogie; also 75 per cent believed that the skort does not reflect current societal standards relating to sporting apparel.

“It’s not really a distraction because it’s something we are fighting towards,” added O’Byrne. “If this is the only way that we can do it then we need to keep doing that and keep pushing for that kind of equality in that sense.

“I don’t like to say it’s a distraction but I do think it’s important. I would kind of take that distraction, if that makes sense.”

A student of graphic design, O’Byrne is already looking forward to a brighter return on Dublin’s camogie fortunes in 2024: “At the moment, we’re training as one panel, the intermediate and senior, and that’s only going to be a good thing. You see the likes of Cork camogie, Kilkenny and Galway, they all train with their inters as well, so it’s just a matter of emulating that process, [it] can only benefit.

“We’ve always had such talented players as well, and I think with the managerial changes, an awful lot of players have bought in, some stepped away, we’ve kind of had new teams every year.

“But it’s just a matter of getting our core group right, so we can build towards that. We have a lot of players back this year, and it’s just really promising to see the younger players step up too, so there is just some sort of feeling that you have, like Waterford, and [we can] work towards those later stages of the championship.”