By Summer Conneely
Camogie players have recently become increasingly vocal about the issue of being forced to wear skorts, rather than being given a choice to wear shorts instead. The Leinster Senior Camogie semi-final between Dublin and Kilkenny was almost called off as the players lined out in shorts rather than the mandatory skorts. They were forced to change under threat of cancellation of the match. More recently, things escalated, with the Munster final between Cork and Waterford being completely called off, as the players had clearly indicated they were going to disobey the policy.
Absurdly sexist
The solution to this issue, to allow players to wear whichever they want, is so obvious that the whole situation seems almost absurd. However, conservatism and misogyny shouldn’t be overlooked. The mandatory skorts rule is deeply unpopular with the players for numerous reasons, with many reporting that they cause discomfort, along with fear of exposure and inappropriate photography. Once again, women’s bodily autonomy is an afterthought, being disregarded by Camogie’s ruling bodies, organisations that presumably should be advocating for camogie and its players.
The opinion of the players – the only people who should matter on this issue – is clear, with surveys from the Gaelic Players Association showing the vast majority of Camogie players believe they should have the choice to wear shorts or skirts. The fact that male players are rarely policed in such a way is unavoidable, as is the implicit message to young girls that powers above them can arbitrarily dictate what they do and wear.
Rotten history
While the Camogie Association is a separate organisation to the GAA, the close links are obvious, and horrible politics is nothing new for the GAA. Simply having more women in its bureaucracy than the GAA hasn’t made the Camogie Association any less politically rotten. From the GAA’s publication of a fascist manifesto in the 1940s, to recently forcing a traditional music band to withdraw from playing at an Ulster Championship match due to their open support for Palestine, the current skorts issue shouldn’t be a surprise from the people who control Ireland’s national sports.
Sport bureaucracy links with political establishment
Many who have spent any time around GAA and Camogie clubs in Ireland will be more than aware of the close links of the clubs with the local ruling class, with club bureaucracy often being filled by people with close links to local business magnates, and constant encroachment by opportunist local politicians.
This relationship is orders of magnitude bigger at the top levels of the GAA. Given that the GAA and Camogie Association have unfortunately long been subsumed into the ruling class of this island, their political stances, including the current lack of concern for women’s bodily autonomy, are simply a reflection of the conservative status quo of the Irish capitalist establishment.
Given this, while the skorts rule may change, the underlying fact is that the sports authorities within Ireland can never truly work for the good of its players or for wider society. What is a beautiful part of Irish culture has been consistently corrupted by taking the game out of the hands of the people, and into the hands of the few. Camogie, along with all Irish sports, should belong to its players and to the ordinary people of Ireland, not to those who currently rule over them.
