Cliona Foley: Portmarnock and Leinster victories a landmark in the battle for equality

Julian Kunzenbacher of Germany putts on the 8th green during the Irish Challenge Golf at Portmarnock Golf Links in Dublin this week. The club at Portmarnock ended their controversial 'men-only' policy in a high-profile decision. Picture:  Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile

Two important equality doors were pushed open in Irish sport this week.

And it is arguable that Leinster rugby’s boardroom decision will have far greater effect than one made by a private club that is already the exclusive preserve of the ultra-rich and privileged.

Portmarnock Golf Club understandably got headlines by finally giving their antediluvian ‘men-only’ membership rule a DeChambeau-force belt into the adjacent Irish Sea.

Whatever the motivation —cynics suggest the imperative for equality became impossible to ignore for financial reasons — the men of Portmarnock GC finally joined the 21 st Century.

“I think it must be one of the last clubs in the world to allow women which seems fairly ridiculous, but I’m delighted they’ve come to this decision,” says Limerick golfer Chloe Ryan, 27, who has experienced, first-hand, the discriminatory effect of their 127-year-old ethos.

Ryan was an ‘Ad Astra’ scholarship recipient for her golfing talent while studying law in UCD where her male college teammates were given membership of Portmarnock GC, an option unavailable to her because she was female.

“Portmarnock’s a really incredible golf course. I have played there because the Darren Clarke Foundation has a tournament there every October for the winners of all the (junior) regions. When I was 17, I played there alongside the Maguire twins which was just a huge day for me.”

Ryan, who played for Ireland in the 2019 Home Internationals, is a member of Castletroy and Lahinch.

She is currently based in London, training to be a solicitor, and has managed to join Sunningdale where her experience underlines just how out of synch Portmarnock were, even with their peers.

Sunningdale, in leafy Berkshire, is one of Britain’s most vaunted clubs, founded in 1900 and a host to the Walker Cup and European Open.

It was, no doubt, happy to get a new international class member who plays off +3 but, equally, offers Ryan unexpected and delightful opportunities. “There are certain men’s match-play tournaments here that they allow ladies in. We play with the men and use the ladies’ tees, but sometimes they have us back on the ‘whites’ and give us extra shots, which I think is fairer on everyone.

“Perhaps Portmarnock felt continuing to exclude women would be very frowned upon if they were hosting major events but I think the fact that Ireland recently created one golf union, that represents women and men equally, must have had an impact on it,” Ryan observes.

The creation of Golf Ireland in 2020, after a painstaking three-year consultation process with the previous men’s (GUI) and women’s (ILGU) bodies, certainly highlighted Portmarnock’s Jurassic tendencies.

Anne McCormack, the chief operating officer of Golf Ireland (GI), says the Dublin club’s decision is “a massive step forward and hugely welcome. It’s another barrier broken down to the notion that golf is a very male-dominated sport.

“Ireland was the last governing body (in golf) in the world to come together and seeing that leadership could possibly have had an influence, but we didn’t force anyone to do this. They (Portmarnock) made it themselves, which is all the better.”

Gender equality is firmly on amateur golf’s agenda since the R&A introduced their “Women in Golf Charter’ in 2018.

This aims to change the balance of participation which, in Golf Ireland’s most recent figures of club memberships (2019) sits at 69% men, 22% women, 7% boys and 2% girls.

But this charter, crucially, guides balance of leadership which, ultimately, is what drives policy, strategy, and resources in all sports.

Golf Ireland already exceeds the R&A’s recommendation of 30% female participation at committee level, with a national executive that is 46% female and 42% women on its regional boards.

McCormack describes their Women in Golf Charter as “gold standard and quite prescriptive in terms of numbers on management committees and equal access to timesheets and competitions.”

Of their 382 clubs, 142 have already signed up and another 78 will join them by the end of June, close to 50%. “As much as we want to make it attractive to get more women and girls playing golf we also need to have their voices around the table,” she says. “In order for participation to increase we need to have women on management committees and in those important decision-making roles within clubs.”

That is exactly why the motions passed at the 2021 Leinster Rugby AGM on Thursday night were so important.

It is five years since Railway Union first asked Leinster Rugby to reinterpret what constituted a ‘senior’ club under the province’s byelaws.

Leinster’s existing constitution ruled that a club’s status was decided by the playing level of their top men’s team and it had another bye-law granting clubs senior status if they played in the All-Ireland League.

Railway Union’s women play in the AIL but their men have junior status.

Senior status gives a club potential financial benefits (they get more international tickets for a start) but, for Railway Union, it was a voice at the top table that was their priority.

Only senior clubs get a representative on the Leinster Executive which is also, significantly, the only official entry-point to an IRFU committee. Leinster’s Executive has 42 members and, heretofore, had just one member specifically representing ‘Leinster Women’.

Railway Union felt strongly that this meant women’s AIL players had no formal voice at any of Irish rugby’s top tables so, two years ago, officially submitted motions that would change Leinster’s definition of a senior club, included making ‘AIL’ an ungendered title.

Their effort was resoundingly defeated but, Leinster, noticeably, undertook, through an inclusivity committee, to examine all of their bye-laws.

It is this inclusivity committee, led by Moira Flahive (one of two ‘inclusivity members already on the Executive), which put forward two motions this week, very similar to Railway’s. Both were passed, one with 116 yes votes (out of 120) and the other with 107.

This, critically, means that any Leinster club playing in the AIL has senior status and that a club’s status is now based on its most senior team, both irrespective of gender.

This gives Old Belvedere and Blackrock’s AIL teams parity of esteem with their male counterparts but, most importantly, now gives Railway Union, Suttonians, and Wicklow RFC a seat on the Leinster Executive.

“An ability for representation at the senior committees in Leinster is the gateway to the IRFU and that’s where we really need to be, driving strategy and ensuring that policies and structures and resources are put in place in order for that strategy to succeed,” says Railway Union’s chairperson Shirley Corcoran.

She stresses that no one should fear such change.

“This gives us the ability now to sit at the top table and help educate others. We want to share our considerable knowledge of Irish women’s rugby with the other 42 members and positively contribute to both the strategic and operational direction of the game.”

Legendary US feminist Ruth Bader Ginsburg famously said: “Women belong in all places where decisions are being made. It shouldn’t be that women are the exception.”

Women on the Leinster Rugby Board may still, numerically, be exceptions but this was a landmark decision. Railway Union started it, Leinster Rugby listened, and more voices representing female players will be heard in its centre of power.