LGFA chief Helen O'Rourke warns integration not a 'silver bullet' to ensuring equal access to playing facilities 

LGFA chief executive Helen O'Rourke during the GAA Congress at NUI Galway Connacht GAA Air Dome in Bekan, Mayo. 

Ladies Football CEO Helen O’Rourke has said the LGFA is not opposed to integration with the GAA and Camogie Association, but warned that a merger of the three might not be the “silver bullet” to ensuring equal access to playing facilities.

Before any integrated body is established, O'Rourke said there first needs to be a “proper, open-minded process” involving stakeholders from the three associations where all matters relating to amalgamation are thrashed out and debated.

The LGFA CEO has also insisted that the association, in 2014, was not opposed to efforts by then GAA president Liam O’Neill to achieve integration. LGFA concerns at the time, she stated, centred on attempts to rush what they saw as a 10-year process, with O’Rourke claiming O’Neill sought to ram through a merger before his term ended in 2015.

She has alleged that O’Neill was insistent “on it happening in his term or not at all”, lamenting how different the GAA family might look today if the process started in 2014 had continued then “for the right reasons”.

O’Neill, when contacted by the Irish Examiner, said he did not see “any benefit” in looking back on past failures, nor did he wish “to get involved in controversy”.

The former GAA president added that it is time for officials to speak “the language of unity”.

In her annual report ahead of this weekend's Ladies Football Congress, O'Rourke rejected the public perception that the association does not want a merger.

“Despite the public perception for some years, the LGFA is not against integration of the three Associations. Quite the opposite, in fact, and we do not need outside influences and uninformed sources to tell us that this is where the future lies,” she wrote.

“Our stance at all times has been to ensure that a proper, open-minded process would take place involving stakeholders of all three Associations, where matters relating to integration at all levels of the Associations would be debated and ironed out, prior to the formation of a new incorporated body.

“We also need to learn from the mistakes of other sporting organisations that followed this route in recent years and ensure that this does not happen within the new Gaelic Games organisation.”

The Ladies Football CEO welcomed the sentiments expressed by GAA Ard Stiurthóir Tom Ryan in his recent annual report that “any amalgamation can only work – indeed can only happen – when each party is completely happy with the shape, extent and pace of change”.

That integration failed eight years ago, O'Rourke claimed, was because of a forced pace of change from the GAA side.

“At Congress 2014, the LGFA unanimously agreed the following: That Cumann Peil Gael na mBan commences negotiations with the GAA and Cumann Camogaíochta with the view to the establishment of structures that will facilitate the promotion and management of all Gaelic Games within the one organisation'.

“Over the following months, all three Associations forwarded their vision of what this one organisation would look like, as a starting point to work off. We in the LGFA felt and said that the process to establish ‘One Association’ would realistically take ten years.

“Unfortunately, the GAA President of the day, Liam O’Neill, was insistent on it happening in his term or not at all. How different the GAA family might look today in 2022 if the process had continued then for the right reasons,” O'Rourke's annual report continued.

“The LGFA remain committed to this vision. We have one opportunity to get any integration/amalgamation right and we have a duty to all members that this new ‘One Association’ will meet the expectations of all and where all codes can continue to grow, develop and be valued, leading to a more vibrant and stronger Gaelic Games organisation for all.”

O’Neill, who spoke passionately in favour of integration at last weekend’s GAA Congress, told the Irish Examiner the amalgamation process is best served by looking forward, not back.

“I don’t see any benefit in looking back on past failures nor do I wish to get involved in controversy,” he replied when O’Rourke’s comments were put to him.

“I think it would benefit the integration process more if we all looked to how we can speed up the process so that girls and boys, women and men can belong to an organisation which shows by its actions that it values all its members equally.

“I hear the language the language of unity from players. Now we need to hear it from officials.”

O’Neill has been a long-time champion of integration and equality for male and female players. During his time as Laois GAA secretary, he moved the date of the 2001 Laois SFC final replay so it would not clash with the county’s All-Ireland ladies football final against Mayo. He also refereed a number of ladies football fixtures in the county.

The conversation around amalgamation has been reignited by the GPA motion passed at Congress calling on the GAA to “prioritise integration” with the Camogie Association and LGFA.

A similar motion is to be voted on at next month's Camogie Congress, while a Galway motion at this weekend's Ladies Football Congress proposes amending Rule 13 to include a commitment to “unite with the GAA with the aim of becoming a partnership of equals”.

Integration alone, O’Rourke insisted, won’t solve the “huge issue” that is the lack of resources available to all codes.

“I would stress that integration may not be the silver bullet that some would imagine when it comes to accessing playing facilities. We now have a new look Gaelic Games family and the explosion of Ladies Gaelic Football and Camogie has brought women even more to the forefront but, in many cases, clubs still have the same facilities as they had a number of years ago. There’s a wider issue about resources that needs to be addressed at Government level.”

The LGFA accounts for 2021 show a €1.17m surplus.