Eimear Ryan: Fear the unspoken hurdle to integrating three Gaelic games bodies
LGFA president MÃcheál Naughton with LGFA chief executive Helen O’Rourke during the GAA Congress at NUI Galway Connacht GAA Air Dome in Bekan, Mayo. Photo by Piaras Ó MÃdheach/Sportsfile
‘Integration’ is the word on everyone’s lips. According to the dictionary, it’s the action or process of integrating; the intermixing of people who were previously segregated. When a motion to unite the GAA, LGFA and Camogie Association was proposed by GPA co-chair Maria Kinsella at congress last weekend, it was overwhelmingly supported from the floor. Integration is the word; ‘merger’ is no longer the preferred nomenclature. Does it sound too corporate?
"Corporate entities can come together relatively quickly but you have three different cultural associations coming together," said GAA president Larry McCarthy, managing expectations about the integration happening overnight. There is a ruthlessness involved with a corporate merger, perhaps; a top-down approach. This will require a more delicate touch, and McCarthy will be keenly aware that he has to bring everyone along with him.
Now let’s bring in another popular 2022 word: retrofit. With the government giving out insulation grants and the nation collectively glued to Home of the Year and Room to Improve, it’s on the tip of many a tongue. As former president Liam O’Neill said: "If we were designing the GAA now we would not design what we have"; women would be involved from the ground floor up, not tacked on at the end. The Great Integration can’t be the equivalent of throwing a few solar panels on the roof.
A wise man said to me recently that bringing all three Gaelic games organisations under one umbrella is a bit like calling for a united Ireland. It looks great on paper and has plenty of popular support, but it’ll be easier said than done – and, as with any major structural change, there’ll be unintended and unforeseen consequences. If we’re going to do it – and I really hope we are – then for god’s sake let’s do it right. So what are the risk factors?
A huge driving force behind integration is the provision of grounds for women and girls, who have in many cases been forced to pay for access to county GAA grounds, or unceremoniously turfed out at the last minute, as happened at the Gaelic Grounds with the All-Ireland ladies football semi-final in December 2020. As someone who played my camogie in counties with their own camogie grounds – Tipperary and Cork – I never had to deal with this personally, but the stress and uncertainty of it is frequently cited as a barrier to performance by elite female players. It needs to be resolved, but after the integration, every county will effectively be doubling its load in terms of space for teams. Helen O’Rourke of the LGFA has warned that integration might not be a ‘silver bullet’ in terms of ensuring equal access to playing facilities, and this is true, but it will at least establish an equal entitlement for women’s teams. Increased efficiency and communication will achieve a certain amount, but down the line, counties will inevitably need to develop more pitches.
The players, who have been the driving force behind integration ever since the GPA and WGPA unified, want it done fast. As GPA chief Tom Parsons said, players want to be able to experience the benefits of integration: "Players want to see significant equality achieved in 12, 18, 24 months so that it is within the players’ career. Even looking at five or 10 years, too many playing careers are ended by then."
From the perspective of administrators, however, it suits them to do it gradually over time with a thorough consultation process with all parties. In his recent annual report, GAA Ard Stiurthóir Tom Ryan said "any amalgamation can only work – indeed can only happen – when each party is completely happy with the shape, extent and pace of change". He does not sound like a fella in a hurry. Equally, the groundbreaking report produced during Aogán Ó Fearghail’s tenure, 'Towards 2034', explicitly stated the aim of having all Gaelic games under one umbrella by the time of the GAA’s 150th anniversary – still a generous deadline. The LGFA, for its part, has floated a ten-year process. Agreeing a timeframe for completion that all parties are happy with will be the first big hurdle that integration faces. As the old adage goes, if you want it good, fast and cheap, you can only pick two.
In many ways, the GAA, LGFA and Camogie Association are already integrated. At club and grassroots level, local teams often work seamlessly together. At elite levels, too, there’s mutual solidarity and understanding between male and female county senior setups. It’s the middle that might prove troublesome, as Larry McCarthy identified: the county boards and the provincial councils. People who have never worked together before are now going to be working side by side; twice as many people will need to be kept in the loop as before. Communication is key.
Maybe the unspoken hurdle, but the one at the root of it all. A fear from the women’s organisations may be that for all they have to gain from integration, they have something to lose, too. The LGFA, in particular, the youngest of the three bodies, has benefitted hugely from its independence, and is an admirably dynamic organisation.Â
Will women be sidelined in the greater GAA? Or conversely, will there be unease and backlash when men inevitably lose out on positions to achieve better gender balance? Will the election of the first female president of the GAA be an important milestone to celebrate how far we’ve come, or will it be merely symbolic, a gesture to women without any real clout behind it? Will we make a distinction between equality, where everyone gets the exact same resources, and equity, where everyone gets as much resources as they need to achieve an equal outcome?
Finally, despite all the potential pitfalls, let’s not lose sight of the fact that this is an incredible opportunity. The GAA – a homegrown amateur grassroots organisation – has the chance to show the world how gender equality in sport can be achieved. The devil may be in the detail, but let’s hope that the divine is in it too.
