Unladylike: Measuring up the history of Ladies' Gaelic Football, 50 years on from the LGFA

Once deemed ‘unladylike’, a new book charts the progression of ladies football to the serious sport it is today, writes Cliona Foley

27 September 2009; Cork captain Mary O'Connor lifts the Brendan Martin cup surrounded by team-mates. TG4 All-Ireland Ladies Football Senior Championship Final, Cork v Dublin, Croke Park, Dublin. Picture credit: Stephen McCarthy / SPORTSFILE

Cork farmer's letter to the Sunday Independent.

‘Sir,

Now that the All-Ireland finals are at hand again, let’s hope the GAA will bar women from attending these games, taking up valuable space.

To me there’s nothing more revolting or unnatural than to see a pleasure-bent woman up in the city for fun and enjoyment, instead of being satisfied with her lot at home.

The GAA is a man’s organisation — for men only!’

Co CORK FARMER

When Hayley Kilgallon came across this letter while doing research for her Masters on the origins of ladies Gaelic football, published in the Sunday  Independent in August 1967, her jaw dropped.

This Cork farmer was either an arch-misogynist or had his tongue firmly in cheek. 

His notions about women and sport reflected the sort of gender baiting that still continues on social media today, so Kilgallon was consoled that it also attracted the early equivalent of a pile-on.

The paper carried a dozen replies a week later. One, from a Carlow reader, pithily declared that that the Cork Farmer ‘should be shot’.

All were unanimous in their message, best summarised as: “Get a life you eejit! Women deserve lives outside their families and home, and some are already experts on Gaelic football.”

Nevertheless, the sentiment and timing still took her aback.

Kicking an O’Neill’s ball in St Mary’s GAA Club since she was 11, it was difficult for the young Sligo woman to believe that such antediluvian beliefs existed just 23 years before she was born.

It only further sparked her historian’s curiosity about the roots of the game which has now resulted in Unladylike, her timely and meticulously written history of the Ladies Gaelic Football Association (LGFA), which coincides with its 50th anniversary.

Hayley Kilgallon, author and historian. Photograph Moya Nolan

UNEARTHING HISTORY

With the game so sparsely covered by the media in its first 20 years, she trawled through mountains of newspapers and player scrapbooks to fill in the many early gaps but Kilgallon’s forensic research never felt like work. 

It was a labour of love because she is still among almost 200,000 Irish women and girls (the LGFA currently has 192,698 registered members) who now play the game.

As a 29-year-old full-back, playing Junior D for Portobello in Dublin, Kilgallon still gets the same joy from kicking ball today as she did in her teens: “Swimming was my main sport up until I was about 15 but the life of a swimmer is kind of lonely because you’re going up and down a lane on your own. On Sunday mornings I used to have swimming training for two hours and then I’d go straight to football training afterwards. I really loved being out, playing and chatting away with my friends. Being part of a team was really enjoyable.”

Ballycumber ladies' team, 1969

Her book covers the sport’s full arc; from the emergence of unofficial women’s games in the 1960s, the formation of the LGFA in 1974, its milestone moments and particularly rapid growth since the 1990s, its legendary teams and players and how the governing body (which still runs the sport and is independent of the GAA) has flexed to deal with opposition and controversy.

What bemused her most was the discovery that female Gaelic players first emerged as a sideshow in ‘carnivals’; festivals of sport, music and dancing that pitched up seasonally to enliven Irish towns and parishes from the 1950s through to the early 70s. 

She said: “Ladies football began as a kind of a novelty act. To think that it started out almost like a joke was really eye-opening, especially through the lens of such a successful organisation today. The struggle they had to go through in those early years to show the general public that it wasn’t a joke, that women were taking it seriously and they were well able to play football, that really stuck out to me.”

The level of opposition the LGFA encountered from its male counterpart for almost a decade also surprised her: “In the end, the GAA recognised that the game wasn’t going away so they needed to have some sort of a stance on women playing Gaelic football, but this only came about eight years after the LGFA was created.”

Not until the GAA Congress of 1981 did delegates pass a motion, from Cavan County Board, ‘that the GAA should recognise Ladies Football and that a committee be set up at national level to establish how best this can be achieved.’

Even then there was prevarication. Kilgallon uncovered the minutes of two fascinating meetings of that committee in 1982 which illustrate what the LGFA still faced. It already had more than 4,000 registered members yet elements within the GAA felt it was ‘unladylike’, could cause breast cancer and would affect the popularity of camogie, which was officially formed in 1904.

Denise Masterson, right, and Siobhán McGrath, Dublin, contest a high ball with Sarah Donnelly, Tyrone, at the TG4 All-Ireland Senior Ladies Football Championship Final 2010.

BREAKTHROUGH

Even when they were persuaded that the first two of these arguments were nonsensical, the GAA’s initial rationale for giving the LGFA their approval was telling.

The committee ultimately decided that women playing Gaelic meant they would understand and appreciate the men’s game better, and that it would be more favourable to have girls playing gaelic football than “some other code”.

The committee recommended to the GAA’s Management Committee that they should tell county boards that they had ‘no objection’ to ladies Gaelic football and clubs should be asked to ‘co-operate where possible’ with the LGFA.

It would be 1986 before women got to play an All-Ireland football final in Croke Park, though some clubs and counties were already on board.

In September 1976, The (Cork) Examiner reported a ‘breakthrough for Ladies Football’ in the fixing of the upcoming Munster LGFA final for Fitzgerald Park in Killarney, a curtain-raiser before the local men’s SFC final between Austin Stacks and Kenmare. 

The Roscommon GAA board had similarly made Dr Hyde Park available for the local women’s final.

Yet despite the ‘One Club’ initiative (established in 2010) and the fact that the GAA is now formally involved in an official amalgamation process with both women’s Gaelic games’ bodies, such collegiality still varies greatly.

The book highlights all of the LGFA’s seminal moments, including TG4’s provision of live TV coverage since 2001 and the groundbreaking Lidl sponsorship since 2016, whose memorable spoof ‘Ladyball’ launch lit up social media.

It doesn’t shy away either from the game’s biggest controversies; from the 11 minutes of over-time played in the 1997 final (which resulted in the introduction of a visible clock) to Mayo getting hit with €22,000 fine (later reduced) in 2003 (for wearing an unapproved jersey manufacturer in All-Ireland finals), to players playing under protest in Summer 2023 as part of the Gaelic Players’ Association’s campaign for equal funding.

Kilgallon believes the LGFA’s rapid growth was down to an innovative approach, and understanding the imperative of getting into schools and creating competitive opportunities. 

They had a National League up and running by 1979 and an All Star scheme by 1980: “They recognised early that they needed to create something that would suit different age-groups and levels. They introduced an U16 competition in 1976 and a club competition in 1977. They did all that with very few people and resources, which is very impressive.”

In detailing its history she hopes players, of all ages, will understand the place that they, their clubs and counties have played in growing the game “and give a bit of recognition, especially, to the people who were pioneers and who really pushed the development of the sport.” 

To borrow a phrase; she has written it for pleasure-bent, ball-kicking women everywhere.

• ‘Unladylike: A History of Ladies Gaelic Football’ by Hayley Kilgallon is published by New Island Books and available in bookshops from September 12.

Hayley Kilgallon, author and historian. Photograph Moya Nolan

WHAT NEXT FOR LADIES' FOOTBALL?

Ladies Gaelic Football celebrated its 50th birthday this summer and, with almost 200,000 registered members, live championship TV coverage and a host of major sponsors, is now regarded as the most successful women’s team sport in Ireland.

But can it sustain its current growth and what pinch-points might it face next?

Hayley Kilgallon’s written history makes no reference to the professional Australian Rules Women’s League, which started in 2017.

It has created the possibility of ‘play for pay’, will include 33 of Ireland’s top gaelic footballers in the coming months and there are fears about its potential to strip the domestic game of its best talent in future.

The Irish and Australian seasons, initially, did not clash, allowing players to juggle both and the AFLW now runs from late August to November.

But it is accepted that the AFLW season will expand further which may increasingly force Irish players to choose between it and their inter-county commitments.

“I haven't considered it too much because it (AFLW) is not part of the LGFA history and I can't speak to the impact it is having, I don’t have the stats and figures,” Kilgallon says.

“I can see the appeal in going to Australia because the opportunities for women to be professional sports people are so rare.

“But I also think there might be a trend right now in the sheer amount of young Irish people currently in Australia. So many of my friends and family are out there, especially after Covid.

“It’s a great opportunity to go out there and play sport for a few years, especially if you can get a career break, but I think the next few years might tell whether it (AFLW) will have a longer term impact on ladies Gaelic football.” She believes the LGFA’s planned integration into a new organisation that will encompass all three gaelic sports’ associations is far more noteworthy.

“It is a really important moment for ladies Gaelic football and will really tell, or could change, the course of the association.

“I'm positive about integration. I think it can be a huge benefit for all the three associations. Coming closer together, pooling resources and working together can only be a good thing.

“When they say they want integration done by 2027 I imagine that means having a pathway set out by then, not having it all completed. It will probably be done in a very phased approach.

“I can understand the LGFA’s previous reservations about it. It has happened in other countries where larger men's sporting associations take over female sporting associations and they (women) experience a dip in progress.

“I think the LGFA is right to be cautious going into it, particularly when they have built what they already have - something that is so strong and successful already, with such a strong identity of its own.”