Conor Meyler: It’s time for equality between the genders in Gaelic games

The Tyrone star believes male players have until now turned 'a blind eye' to gender inequality in their sport

Conor Meyler is currently undertaking a PhD in sports leadership and gender. Picture: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile

Tyrone star Conor Meyler has called on male inter-county players and the GAA to step up and use their voices in the bid to establish real equality between the genders in Gaelic games.

The 2021 All-Ireland and All-Star winner is currently undertaking a PhD in sports leadership and gender, something he describes as a journey of “self-excavation”, and declared that male players have until now turned “a blind eye” to gender inequality in their sport.

He doesn’t exempt himself from that either.

“Until there is a change in behaviour, that’s where I see the issue lying,” he said. “By staying quiet you are part of the problem. We have seen females talking about wanting equality. We have heard that message so many times.

“People are switching off but by seeing more males stand up and getting more media attention behind it, that’s where the GAA have to step in and take charge as the largest organisation and say, ‘we are going to make a push here’.” 

The issue of fairness was articulated by Gemma Begley, the former Tyrone player, who spoke about how the county’s senior ladies team had in the past been forced to pay normal commercial rates for the use of the male county board’s training facility in Garvaghey.

“It’s things like that make you feel like a second-class citizen,” she admitted.

There is clearly scope for greater commercial income from sponsorships if the male and female branches of the GAA family come together but there is also the inescapable reality that things like facilities are finite regardless of money.

For girls and women to be accommodated as equals there may be a need for their male counterparts to give up their unfettered access to pitches and other facilities, and maybe even some of the finances that are funnelled so overwhelmingly in their direction.

“I can see that’s where some men will start to be reluctant, but you have to look at it as a wider society and say, ‘what role are you playing in a wider society?’ It’s the difference in knowing the right thing to do and actually doing it,” said Meyler.

“All men know it’s the right thing to do. I went to Garvaghy. I never had a problem with a pitch. That took stress and pressure off me because I wasn’t worrying about that but (Gemma) was having to deal with that as well.”