Irish women’s rugby fallout: Sporting bodies attempt to ignore elephant in the room

In the most remarkable opening remarks before any Dáil Committee, neither Sport Ireland nor the Federation of Irish Sport mentioned the Irish women’s rugby players

When told that matters around the concerns raised by the players “need(s) to be taken quite serious and it needs (a) stronger response” the Minister of State pointed to Sport Ireland as having responsibility over matters, not once but five times. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Don’t mention the war — well certainly no need to ask Sport Ireland or the Federation of Irish Sport, anyway.

Sure why would you want to speak about the biggest gender issue dominating Irish sports at a hearing “to discuss challenges facing women in sport”?

In the most remarkable opening remarks before any Dáil Committee, neither statutory body mentioned the Irish women’s rugby players, who in case they hadn’t noticed, had something to say for themselves this week.

Opening remarks at these forums are deeply significant — the witness gets to declare positions on important issues affecting the domain over which they rule and use the opportunity to make official comment about matters important.

That Sport Ireland and the Federation of Irish Sport chose not to is too much of a coincidence, but the plan then backfired spectacularly once Jack Chambers got going.

Chambers threw Sport Ireland under the team bus.

When told that matters around the concerns raised by the players “need(s) to be taken quite serious and it needs (a) stronger response” the Minister of State pointed to Sport Ireland as having responsibility over matters, not once but five times.

The problem for Chambers was that he was the first witness, and he obviously hadn’t seen the script from Sport Ireland, who appeared in the second of Wednesday’s two sessions and stated immediately that they didn’t want to go into it.

Even the most mildly myopic will have noticed that this meeting was taking place in what is either the worst, or second worst, most catastrophic week for women in sport.

During her time in the chair, Dr Una May of Sport Ireland — and the person hotly tipped by political types to take over from John Treacy as CEO of the body — looked deeply unsure and uncomfortable whenever the issue was raised.

Sinn Féin’s Imelda Munster picked up on the fear instantly.

She grilled May on oversight and responsibility — did Sport Ireland know about how deeply unhappy the game’s greatest players were in the administration running rugby, and what were they going to do about it?

The answers (although it was difficult to get any clarity from Sport Ireland) seem to be: ‘No’, and ‘Nothing, right now’. Despite Munster’s line of attack — which was simply to ask the questions we were all hoping the rest of the committee would ask — Una wasn’t budging.

There was a hat-tip to the players — who Sport Ireland will meet, but really she wants to see the reviews when they eventually come out first — reviews that Senator Shane Cassells pointed out that the players have no faith in.

The farce was complete when May told Munster that Sport Ireland has oversight in matters of funding, to which the TD responded that surely that included the IRFU who this week pocketed almost ‘20 mill’ in public money.

Throwing in a jab during her final flurry, Munster summed it up for everyone: “So you’re happy to leave well enough alone then.”

You couldn’t make it up.