Skorts saga shows backwards thinking in Camogie Association but isn't the only example still around in Ireland

The Irish Sun

13-05-2025

THERE are certain phrases which, when they appear in statements, should set off alarm bells.
They sound like they been devised by so-called communications experts and are often heard from organisations when they find themselves on the back foot.
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This year's inter-county season has been flung into doubt amid continued player unrest
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Camogie Association president Brian Molloy tried to explain his organisation's stance earlier this week while appearing on RTE Radio
They are designed to convince you that something is black when your own eyes tell you that it is, in fact, white.
'Player welfare is at the heart of everything we do' is one such phrase.
It is the sort of line might hear from a sporting federation when a player is unable to say what day of the week it is after taking a hit to the head.
Substitute animal for player and it can also be used by, say, a company transporting livestock in cramped conditions for hours on end on their way to the slaughter house.
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Spoiler alert: The welfare of the player or animal is not always as important as they claim it is but maybe they believe if they repeat it often enough they might convince people, perhaps even themselves, that it is true.
The above line was used by the Camogie Association in the
If the likes of me are sitting up and paying attention to a row within Gaelic games, then you know you are in trouble.
I am well and truly out of my lane and I am curious to see where this drift takes me.
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If this continues, expect opinions on farming, period dramas and golf next week.
The Camogie Association's president Brian Molloy may have had a similar sense of discombobulation when he found himself in
'It's a failure on the camogie association' - RTE GAA pundits don't sit on fence over 'no-brainer' skorts saga
We all know that, if you are explaining, you are losing.
And the crux of the matter is that you would struggle to describe this issue to a foreigner who has grown up in a liberal country —
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Because how can you begin to explain that, in 2025, in order to compete in a sport it is a requirement for girls and women to wear a hybrid garment which the majority of players dislike?
Maybe it is because girls are used to being told what and what not to wear — how often have you heard a boy be told, 'You're not leaving the house in that'? — that there was just a weary acceptance that this is the way things were and have always been and that resistance is futile.
But, in insisting that Dublin and Kilkenny's players change out of shorts if they wanted their Leinster Championship semi-final to proceed, referee Ray Kelly may have unwittingly done them all a favour.
The Dublin County Board presumably had good intentions in instructing officials to allow matches to proceed even if teams were not donning skorts but, in reality, it was an Irish solution to an Irish problem.
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It perpetuated rather than challenged the absurdity of the dress code but, in seeking to apply the rules, Kelly highlighted their ridiculousness to the point that they could no longer be ignored.
MATTER OF TIME
It is not a question of if they will be changed but how and when.
You do not need to be an expert on our native sports to see how the governing body has not handled this well and has suffered reputational damage which may well prove to be irreparable.
Molloy — who said he favours choice in the matter — told This Week: 'There's a process that I've got to go through.
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'It's bottom up, not top down, I don't make these decisions, I have to go through a process.'
The process is a Special Congress this month when motions can be tabled to resolve the sport's wardrobe malfunction.
But the notion that it is 'bottom up' is in itself flawed.
Because, as has become clear, not least by the postponement at short notice of the Munster final between Cork and Waterford in an attempt to avoid a stand-off, players have not yet been listened to even though arguably they are bottom of the pile.
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Yet it is not they who will decide on the change and there are no guarantees that their voices will be listened to.
If player welfare was, indeed, at the heart of everything they did, then the ongoing situation would not have occurred in the first place.
PLAYER SENTIMENT
Instead, prior to the vote on motions concerning players' attire at the organisation's Annual Congress last year, the opinions of players themselves would have been canvassed.
It is unlikely the results would have differed significantly from the Gaelic Players Association survey released last week which found that 70 per cent of players surveyed had experienced discomfort while wearing a skort, while 83 per cent said they should have a choice between skorts and shorts.
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The notion of any sport knowingly endorsing a uniform code which is uncomfortable and, it is not unreasonable to extrapolate, affects performance is just bizarre.
Think of the millions of Euros invested in both kit and equipment across various sports to maximise performance and here is one code which steadfastly sticks with one which inhibits it.
To what end is not exactly clear.
Many who believe that the skort should be the only choice are not particularly good at explaining their position — a sure indication that the position is indefensible — bar mumbling about tradition and femininity.
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That stands in sharp contrast to the ability of players to articulate the issues.
Teenage girls canvassed last week spoke of their embarrassment of having to constantly adjust the skort and the unflattering images which can result from making normal sporting movements in it.
And Dublin captain Aisling Maher,
'How are female players still having to push for permission to wear shorts while they compete at the highest level of their sport?
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'In no other facet of my life does someone dictate that I have to wear something resembling a skirt because I am a girl. Why is it happening in my sport?'
SCHOOL EXAMPLE
But, while her last point may be true for her as an adult, it is not for thousands of girls up and down the country.
Some schools — including those which are girls-only and have a religious ethos — have had the good sense to offer their female students the choice of wearing trousers rather than skirts if they so wish.
Others have not, so the sight of teenage girls being forced to expose their bare legs to the Irish winter remains a familiar one.
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How, in this day and age, can anyone justify that?
The truth is nobody can and, as the skorts issue has shown, all it takes is for a light to be shone upon it for people to realise that it is something which cannot be tolerated any longer.