Ashling Thompson: GAA hoping 'we'll forget about' integration

The Cork camogie star said female players' patience with integration between the GAA, LGFA and Camogie Association has run out 

Ashling Thompson: 'At some point you actually have to do it. And if 2027 is no longer achievable, then tell us why, tell us what's changed' Pic: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

Ashling Thompson believes the GAA is hoping that players will simply forget about the integration of the association with the Ladies Gaelic Football Association and the Camogie Association. 

The All-Ireland-winning Cork camogie star said female players have repeatedly accepted delays and disappointments but that willingness has run out.

"The GPA are not willing to accept it," Thompson told the Claire Byrne Show on Newstalk.

"And I firmly believe that most people across the country won't be willing to accept that. But I think the GAA are just hoping that we'll forget about it. We'll be put in the long grass and that this can be a conversation that will happen over the next five to 10 years."

Thompson felt there were "warning signs" that integration would be delayed.

"I think when you go back to Derek Kent's comments about 2034 being more realistic of a time frame, in the back of my mind, I'm not completely shocked," she said. 

"But if the incoming president believed that 2027 wasn't realistic, why were we still being told that 2027 was the roadmap? And if 2034 is the ambition, then clearly say that because that's eight years away. For a young woman playing inter-county camogie today, that's an enormous amount of time.

"And we shouldn't have to wait until 2034 or whatever their plan is to find out whether the organisation that we represent is actually going to treat us as an equal. I want the woman who puts on a Cork jersey to know that her association values her as much as the men who put on a Cork jersey. We want equal recognition, equal opportunity, proper investment.

"We've been fairly open about what our wants and needs are, but they're going to turn around and say, isn't it better to take more time? And of course we want it done properly. Nobody wants to rush an integration that damages camogie and ladies football, but 'do it properly' cannot become a phrase that means keep putting it back because we've been talking about this for four years. 

"Mary McAleese has put in enormous Trojan work over this. We've had committees, consultations, roadmaps, surveys, Oireachtas hearings and so on. But at some point you actually have to do it. And if 2027 is no longer achievable, then tell us why, tell us what's changed and tell us what guarantees that there are that this simply doesn't disappear again into the long grass."

On Tuesday, former president of Ireland McAleese stepped down as the chairperson of the steering group for integration, saying she suspects "that there are people who are not entirely happy about the idea of including women in decision-making at the top level of Gaelic sports."

Responding to McAleese's comments, Thompson said "I've seen it with my own two eyes, where it happens within clubs where the girls won't get such and such or there's no way they're playing in the main pitch. This happens every day of the week.

"But nobody is there to say it on a public platform. It's hard not to question, you can be guaranteed, especially when they come up with the lame excuse that equity is the issue. It's hard not to believe that there isn't somebody in the background that's saying, 'why should we be putting women on the platform? This is GAA, this is a men's organisation.'"

Speaking on Wednesday, GAA director general Tom Ryan strongly rejected accusations of misogyny directed at the association, saying its commitment to integration "remains firm and absolute".