Getting the ball rolling on uniting the entire GAA family
“Camogie needs to be appreciated for what it is and not constantly held up to the light and compared to what the men are doing,” said the Cloyne man to warm applause, stating how he’d love to hear someone say just once that Henry Shefflin would be proud of something Briege Corkery did, and not the other way around.
It remains to be seen if Cusack’s desire for equal status among those who play both ancient games comes to pass.
What’s certain is that he has a kindred spirit in GAA President Liam O’Neill who is spearheading the drive to formalise not just camogie but ladies Gaelic football as official, equal, GAA units.
Cusack also touched on this issue in his speech, claiming he too favoured such a marriage or ‘civil union’ and that both parties had everything to gain from it.
The ball is already rolling in the direction of full integration with Dublin GAA recently confirming a multi-million euro sponsorship deal that relates to male and female players of both codes in the capital.
It is significant too that, for the first time, all four elite third-level Gaelic games competitions — the Sigerson and Fitzgibbon Cups and the Ashbourne and O’Connor Cups — will be hosted by the one university, Queens, in 2014.
Behind closed doors, talks have been taking place between GAA, camogie and ladies Gaelic football officials since last April.
The next step is each of those organisations bringing forward motions to their respective congress gatherings to open formal integration negotiations, paving the way for a potentially historic accord.
For a start, county boards as they currently exist may have to be overhauled.
“It would be a different way of looking at how you do things,” said O’Neill.
“You’d be electing an executive, probably, to run the county, with positions on it for what’s now known as the camogie association and the ladies football association, and for handball and rounders.
“So there would have to be a rethink on how it would be done and that would challenge us. But it could be the means by which we could regenerate the entire organisation, if everyone is open minded about it.
“I’m not saying this is easy. We would probably have to get outside help. We would probably have to get some sort of facilitator to look at the thing with us and say, ‘this is how the thing could work if you all agree to go the route’. But I think it could open up huge possibilities for us to do what we do better.”
On paper, the benefits appear to be loaded in favour of camogie and ladies gaelic football. As O’Neill pointed out, they would immediately gain access ‘to almost a billion euros of property, automatic access, the same way hurling and football have’.
Or for the many dual players who currently pay membership and insurance to two separate organisations, they would only have to pay to one, to the GAA, if all were integrated.
Viewed in a particular light, it is a no-brainer. But as camogie President Aileen Lawlor pointed out, previous attempts to bring the associations together have failed.
“It has been attempted a few times and never got too far along the way,” said Lawlor, who is firmly behind the bid. “It would get to a certain stage and then stop. The terms of office of all the [GAA] Presidents were three years so you could get so much done in three years and then it might fall away, depending on who followed. In Liam’s term, he’s pushing it forward that much more and he might not get it done in his three years but at least he might get to a certain stage where there’s no going back.”
Lawlor said the chief fear in camogie circles is ‘of being taken over by the bigger fish’. That is something she doesn’t believe will happen, mind. Those closest to the negotiations so far suggest that ladies gaelic football officials are most cautious.
“I think it will happen,” said ladies football President Pat Quill. “I have no doubt it will happen. Obviously there’s a process that’s to be gone through and there’s a sell to be done on it. I suppose from our point of view it’s just to ensure that there’s equal development and opportunities for the girls as well as the fellas, that it’s not a question of coming into an organisation and being swallowed up. But it will happen, let there be no doubt about it. It’s a matter of when rather than if.”
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