Valerie Mulcahy: ‘You must have pride in the jersey you wear’
Yes, they’ve had to endure cold showers, long drives home from training with no food in their stomach and the embarrassment of knocking on doors begging for a couple of euros so they could roll off the team bus on match-day with a decent jacket on their back and a proper gear bag in their hand.
But, with 38 All-Ireland medals between them, 43 if you include club achievements, Juliet Murphy, Valerie Mulcahy, Anna Geary, and Briege Corkery have also been exposed to a world most ladies footballers and camogie players could only ever dream of.
Sixteen-time All-Ireland medal-winner Corkery is the current poster girl for the Lidl campaign which has seen the game’s most recognisable faces plastered on billboards and bus stops the length and breadth of the country. Mulcahy, meanwhile, was one of two women invited to be part of a recent Adidas shoot which saw her share the lens with Dublin’s Jack McCaffrey and Kilkenny pair Richie Hogan and Paul Murphy.
At Tuesday’s PwC lunch in the Maryborough Hotel to mark International Women’s Day, conversation at the table centres on the upcoming All Star trip to San Diego which Corkery and Mulcahy will be part of. Murphy, during her time in the red and white, was part of All Star parties that travelled to Dubai, Hong Kong and Toronto. Geary, then, despite her four All Stars, is the odd one out, for All Star tours are not a privilege yet enjoyed by camogie’s leading figures.
It’s a minor complaint, mind you, by comparison with the hundreds of female inter-county players who are still deprived of hot showers and a bowl of soup and a slice of bread after training.
Such inequalities motivated the establishment of the WGPA little over a year ago and its no surprise to find two Cork representatives — Geary and Mulcahy — on the seven-person executive.
“People will start to say can somebody wash the women because we seem to harp on about the showers all the time,” jokes Geary.
“It is just about getting the basics right, though. That value on your contribution is what is crucially important. And that is why the WGPA was formed. We want to show players currently in the game that your contribution is valued and how you do that is by making sure that food is available, making sure they have hot showers and making sure that they don’t have to fight tooth and nail every time they want to get a pitch.
“It is about creating a uniform set of standards. When you are successful, it might come that little bit easier to you. We want to make sure that every county has that set of standards because when you are a parent and you are looking to choose what type of sport to put your daughters into, we want them to see that those who will be the future stars of our game will be looked after.”
At the age of 12, Valerie Mulcahy had no ladies football outlet in the Whitechurch area. Her mother Marie founded the Rockbán club and her daughter is now the proud owner of 10 All-Ireland medals.
“If you want something, you have to go out and get it yourself, don’t wait for others to do it for you; that is what my mother taught me. I drew inspiration from her to play a role in addressing the issues facing women in sport.
“The GPA have definitely paved the way,” says Mulcahy. “There was a lot of negativity associated with them, initially. People assumed they wanted to go on strike and that they wanted this, that and the other. But essentially, all they wanted was for their players to be treated well. We are the same.
“People do get shocked by what county players have to go through. Obviously, there are no expenses. Only in the last few years, with success, have we got free training gear. There was a stage when we didn’t get anything. We had to fundraise. It was very embarrassing. Still counties are in that situation. You want to have pride in the jersey you wear.
“We are working on ensuring each county board can create standards that players are happy with and want to buy into because you want to make sure that people enjoy the sport instead of getting turned off by it.”
Geary reckons women have “a massive role” to play in the resurgence of women’s sports. Retired Cork ladies footballer Juliet Murphy, though, believes it is important not to create a male/female divide.
“I feel we are fortunate to have male coaches who want to coach female teams. It is not always about looking at it in a male versus female perspective. It is about seeing how we can complement each other. For us, Eamonn Ryan has been a huge inspiration and I know the girls have also been very responsive towards Ephie Fitzgerald. It is not always negative to have male coaches. It can be a plus too.”
