Leinster camogie semi almost cancelled as Kilkenny and Dublin choose shorts over skorts

Kilkenny players stand for the playing of the Amhrán na bhFiann before the Very National Camogie League Division 1A match against Tipperary. Pic: Tom Beary/Sportsfile.

Kilkenny and Dublin almost saw their Leinster senior camogie semi-final called off as their players originally lined out in shorts instead of the regulatory 'skorts’.

The 30 women, 15 from Kilkenny and 15 from Dublin, emerged from the dressing rooms at St Peregrine’s GAA club, Blanchardstown wearing skorts before standing for the national anthem ahead of the 3.30pm throw-in on Saturday.

This is Crazy🤯

Dublin camogie team came out to play Kilkenny in shorts.

Dublin had to return to the dressing room after match officials threatened abandon the game if Dublin players didn’t change from shorts into the skort… pic.twitter.com/pY1RCIkDUk

— Score Beo (@Score_Beo) May 3, 2025

The move was part of a campaign aimed at allowing female players to decide for themselves whether they would like to wear shorts or skorts, which are skirts with shorts underneath.

And after seeing the players wearing shorts, referee Ray Kelly from Kildare told Tommy Shefflin's Kilkenny team and Gerry McQuaid's Dublin side that they would have to get changed in skorts or the match would be abandoned.

Both sets of players reluctantly agreed to revert back to wearing skorts and it is believed that the teams could face further action for their initial defiance.

A recent study by the Gaelic Players Association found 70% of inter-county camogie players find skorts uncomfortable and 83% of players at least want the right to choose between wearing skorts and shorts.

Dublin captain and co-chair of the GPA Aisling Maher told the Irish Independent that the players decided to take "collective action" on the issue.

"On Thursday night the players agreed, that as a wider camogie group across the country, we feel like we're not being heard in our frustrations and our discomfort around the skort," began Maher.

"It’s been over a year now since the Camogie Congress last year when the vote to introduce choice was rejected by delegates.

"The most comments that the Camogie have given is saying to county boards that they are doing research on a more comfortable and functional skort which is just not hearing the concerns of the players at all as far as we were concerned.

"At the end of the day players want to play, you don’t want to be protesting wearing skorts or shorts or whatever it is, so it was something that was in the background but we were trying to settle it in a better way.

"I guess that the report that the GPA had done and the lack of response from the Camogie Association kind of compounded player frustrations."