Eimear Ryan: Camogie can no longer skort around this issue

The skort question is just one of many conversations taking place around women’s playing gear.

CHANGING THE WAY: London club Thomas McCurtains have launched a campaign to drive support for a motion to remove the skort from camogie in favour of shorts.

The camogie players of Thomas McCurtains GAA club have had enough. When they go to support their colleagues in hurling, football and ladies football, their clubmates are all playing in that quintessential GAA fashion item: O’Neill’s togs. Only the camogie players have to wear a skort: essentially, a pair of shorts with a skirt-like flap in the front.

But instead of merely giving out about it, and wearing togs at every possible opportunity (training, practice matches) the way the rest of us do, the women of Thomas McCurtains have taken action. Last weekend, they launched their Shorts Not Skorts campaign at their grounds in east London, wearing the camogie-branded togs that they’ve now made a part of their official strip. They’ve even carried out a survey of 240 people, the results of which they published in a report called The Long and Skort of it (full marks on the puns).