Taoiseach: Cork and Galway ladies' GAA disruption 'left awful lot to be desired'

Galway's Sinead Burke and Mairead Seoighe dejected at the end of the game

The situation that the Cork and Galway ladies footballers found themselves in at the weekend “left an awful lot to be desired” and was “very, very unsatisfactory”, according to Taoiseach Micheál Martin.

Mr Martin said the unsavoury situation raised bigger questions around “parity and equality” within women’s sport in general.

The venue for the crunch All-Ireland Senior Ladies Football Championship semi-final between Cork and Galway was changed late in the day, disrupting the plans of both teams.

The game was due to be played at Parnell Park on Sunday afternoon but, due to an icy pitch, was switched to Croke Park. Live television coverage by TG4 had to be aborted, while Galway only arrived minutes before the 1pm throw-in.

It was the second change of venue for the teams, with Limerick IT’s Gaelic Grounds originally chosen, before being taken earlier in the week by the men’s senior hurlers for All-Ireland Final preparation against Waterford.

Mr Martin said he wanted to congratulate the Cork football team for winning in very difficult circumstances, but said that “it left an awful lot to be desired”.

“I think the respective associations need to work together in this respect, to have proper parity and equality in terms of how women’s football and women’s sports in general are treated," he said.

“It was very, very unsatisfactory what happened over the weekend in terms of the change of venues on a couple of occasions. It’s not good for the team and the respective players on both sides and it is something that definitely has to change."