Shine a spotlight on women in sport
It got me thinking about women’s sports in Ireland.
To be honest, even though I followed my club in Ladies Football, I wouldn’t have been actively going to see the counties. I would have gone a few times and really, the pride that we have in our ladies is a mix.
Obviously, it’s lovely to see all the young girls cheering on their idols like Valerie Mulcahy, Juliette Murphy, Geraldine O’ Flynn, and so on. But at the same time, the coverage given to the ladies isn’t what I would call ‘great’.
TG4 do an unreal job, but it’s a pity RTÉ don’t try and get coverage up and running.
The Ladies finals this year were fairly impressive, in fairness. It had everything: team-work, skill, determination and pure class.
Think back to the mens’ finals and no one deliberates over Dublin’s victory, but more how Mayo collapsed yet again on the big stage (even though RTE had never ending coverage of ‘the great Dublin’). The difference?
More people are still talking about ‘the great Dublin’, but no one’s talking about the Cork team who won eight out of nine titles.
Flash forward to both sets of Allstars, the men’s awards were set up to be amazing. Instead, it looked like the GAA went recession-proof and just staged their awards at Croke Park. I was happy for the Cork boys that won, but at the same time, no one really gave the ladies much attention.
It’s still sad to see that in Ireland today, we are still treating women as less in sport.
Obviously as a little teenager, I do get more excited seeing men than women, for obvious teenage reasons, but at the same time, if I could play football, this would be the sport I’d play and I’d obviously want as much attention as the men.
These women are heroes and inspirations to young girls coming up through the ranks of football and camogie, so we should publicise them more.
Everyone always rants and moans about other female ‘role models’ such as Rihanna and Miley Cyrus. If we have such a big problem, why don’t we introduce our daughters to the women of sport? Women who our parents can feel comfortable with us looking up to. From a sporting perspective, these women do us proud. I for one hope that we give them the recognition that they deserve and come out and support them.
