Altogether now 2027

[tiempo]

Fella in the club has 2 daughters, in his own words, if I'd boys I'd be the main man within underage and coaching about here, but I don't so I'm not getting involved

Same fella rejected the proposal to bring Roisin Jordan in as a guest speaker to the dinner dance when the first female chair of a GAA county board cus 'no-one wants to listen to a woman'

A complete cretin (and piece of shit taboot)

Other side of the coin, 31/32 LGFA county teams are managed by men, I'd like to ask where are the great women of Oireland to redress this imbalance, are they all at home washing kits for men as we've been led to believe this week?

Its a clusterfuck of a topic, if I was Derek Kent I'd tell the LGFA and CA to merge and seek a merger with the GAA thereafter (knowing it would never happen), the GAA is under no obligation to merge with hostile partners, ironically a lot of that hostility is driven by the GPA, they really are a deluded bunch, gold standard mé féiners, and need put back in their box which I have every confidence DK will make a priority, that and the unearthing invoices for the Kenya trip

[gallsman]

Fella in the club has 2 daughters, in his own words, if I'd boys I'd be the main man within underage and coaching about here, but I don't so I'm not getting involved

Same fella rejected the proposal to bring Roisin Jordan in as a guest speaker to the dinner dance when the first female chair of a GAA county board cus 'no-one wants to listen to a woman'

A complete cretin (and piece of shit taboot)

Other side of the coin, 31/32 LGFA county teams are managed by men, I'd like to ask where are the great women of Oireland to redress this imbalance, are they all at home washing kits for men as we've been led to believe this week?

Its a clusterfuck of a topic, if I was Derek Kent I'd tell the LGFA and CA to merge and seek a merger with the GAA thereafter (knowing it would never happen), the GAA is under no obligation to merge with hostile partners, ironically a lot of that hostility is driven by the GPA, they really are a deluded bunch, gold standard mé féiners, and need put back in their box which I have every confidence DK will make a priority, that and the unearthing invoices for the Kenya trip

I don't get this? He's a cretin, evident to see. What arguement does it support? That there are c***ts everywhere in the GAA? If so, absolutely the are, and they should be called out. What if his daughters showed interest in Gaelic sports? They'd be denied the opportunity within their own home, never mind the club purely for the fact they're girls.

[RadioGAAGAA]

Its a clusterfuck of a topic, if I was Derek Kent I'd tell the LGFA and CA to merge and seek a merger with the GAA thereafter (knowing it would never happen)

That is a smart suggestion.

As well as getting any initial dirty laundry aired without sexism allegations flying everywhere, it would provide real lessons for any future amalgamation with GAA.

[Captain Scarlet]

I need to keep asking this. If Dr Mary McAleese was chair of a committee from 2022 and they helped to deliver a timeline in 2024 for what would happen by 2027, surely she had milestones and targets to hit each year.

As a chair of any committee how did she have zero oversight and be taken so aback when the GAA asked for a pause. If something is meant to be locked off in 2027, but no real movement has happened since 2022, that should have been noticed and spoken about before.

And there were others on that steering committee coming on social media and the airwaves who don't seem to have been on top of their brief.

In the past I have played in the 'bottom field' in a beer-belly derby Junior Match while our Senior Camogie women go the top field for a Div 1 game. No remarks past.

Look at the recent BS stories Coin Toss and Skorts with Camogie.

The LGFA disaster match when the pitch was frozen in Parnell Park. And I found this other controversy too from 2020. It was Cork v Galway - God forbid Limerick have the use of their own stadium!

'The Ladies Football Semi-Final has been moved from Limerick to facilitate training for the men. That doesn't sound as though it is equality in action', said the RTE Radio presenter.

Then there's the constant active clashing of club games between the two organisations who are hostile to one another. Let them join together first and go from there.

[gallsman]

It was a steering committee. They aren't charged with execution.

[Dougal Maguire]

Just as a point of order folks.

If the stumbling block (or major stumbling block) is that ladies believe they should receive exactly the same benefits as men, then it's not equality they're after: it's egalitarianism.

The difference being:

Equality is when everyone is given the some opportunity, regardless of their background or personal situation.

Egalitarianism is when everyone is given the same outcome, regardless of their effort or achievement.

And I'd ask that people here try to understand and accept this. And if what they want to see happen is egalitarianism, then use that word.

——

Footnote: Egalitarianism is a lovely concept but in reality it does not work at any level, in any discipline or endeavour. You'll find no successful examples of it working in history. High providers and high achievers just pick up their things and leave, and take those who understand and accept this, with them.

So when Denise Royle, who was giving her parents £20 for Christmas suggested to her brother Anthony, who was giving £200, that they club together and give a joint present that's egalitarianism

[magpie seanie]

I need to keep asking this. If Dr Mary McAleese was chair of a committee from 2022 and they helped to deliver a timeline in 2024 for what would happen by 2027, surely she had milestones and targets to hit each year.

As a chair of any committee how did she have zero oversight and be taken so aback when the GAA asked for a pause. If something is meant to be locked off in 2027, but no real movement has happened since 2022, that should have been noticed and spoken about before.

And there were others on that steering committee coming on social media and the airwaves who don't seem to have been on top of their brief.

In the past I have played in the 'bottom field' in a beer-belly derby Junior Match while our Senior Camogie women go the top field for a Div 1 game. No remarks past.

Look at the recent BS stories Coin Toss and Skorts with Camogie.

The LGFA disaster match when the pitch was frozen in Parnell Park. And I found this other controversy too from 2020. It was Cork v Galway - God forbid Limerick have the use of their own stadium!

'The Ladies Football Semi-Final has been moved from Limerick to facilitate training for the men. That doesn't sound as though it is equality in action', said the RTE Radio presenter.

Then there's the constant active clashing of club games between the two organisations who are hostile to one another. Let them join together first and go from there.

I don't see any evidence of milestones and timelines announced until March 2026. Long after the completion date was announced which seems insane to be. Expecting everything to be done in 6 months to go before special congresses was aggressive at best.

A huge amount of overreacting and some clubs and individuals have made real fools out of themselves here. This is absolutely going to happen but - again judging by the wild hysteria of recent days - some people are going to be massively disappointed. The amalgamation of the organisations is only phase 1. Everything people seem to want may never be achieved and it certainly won't be by amalgamation alone. A lot of these blowhards need to get involved and work through the organisation to make things better or stay on the ditch howling at the moon.

[tiempo]

Theres an awful stench of toxic feminism and misandry coming from female reps pundits and commentators who have been given the week to platform and boy have they flapped those gums like never before

There will be no hostile takeover of the GAA, the wans that outed themselves this week MMA included have never washed a set of jerseys

Personally I take great pride in the task, seeing it as a burden and trying to weaponise it simply makes you part of the problem

[Captain Scarlet]

There's a senator talking about a Div 2 Camogie Final and players having to use public toilets and the ref toilet. But surely they had access to dressing rooms.

And tell me this, at county level, when the GAA give a pitch is it not up to the CA to run the event? There's a lot of similar instances being posted online eg lack of access to facilities bar the pitch.

Also the county camogie teams are notorious for dragging opposition teams away from closer pitches. Maybe not a tactic any more, but it was something years ago.

[tiempo]

Happily gave free use of the club facilities and pitch to the CA for a final one weekend, set up and all for them, before the final they enquired about a dozen times that the grass was going to be the regulation 19-35mm, then they landed down and one of the reps took a can of spray paint and drew a technical area on the slideline for each teams management, freehand, was like spaghetti, no permission sought just pure entitled as fvck ... it was a learning experience thats for sure

[seafoid]

https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2026/09/12/orla-muldoon-both-men-and-women-built-the-gaa-its-time-women-were-given-equal-treatment/


The development of the GAA into a cultural powerhouse was built on the work of both men and women. But it catered only for men's sports, while happily welcoming the labour of women in non-sporting roles. Just like the invisible work women so often undertake, responsibility for feeding, washing and organising clubs and players; corralling teams and driving to matches up and down the country often falls to women. Today, though women are involved in many roles across the organisation, power – and all of the most important committee positions – remains with men. And the means of making money remains with the GAA.
The visceral loyalty to the GAA, together with the powerful position it has occupied in Irish life, results in serious blind spots. This is often how it works: powerful groups in any society tend to be oblivious to their privilege. They rarely have capture on how their privilege impacts less powerful groups.
By contrast, built on a foreshortened history and reflective of the less powerful position of women in sport, and in Ireland over much of the lifetime of the GAA, the Camogie Association and LGFA come to the integration table as the junior partners, with fewer resources.
For this reason, successful integration requires redistribution of resources. The less advantaged groups require over-investment to bring them up to the level of the more powerful group. Despite how the term has been used and misused by the GAA over the last two days, this is what is actually meant by equity.

It is a recipe for disaster to require the smaller, less resourced parties to fund their own levelling up. It simply will not happen. LGFA and the Camogie Association are historically disadvantaged when it comes to generating resources. To expect that they fund themselves – as Jarlath Burns suggested on Wednesday – is not integration; it is just another way of shirking responsibility for women's sports.
It is a recipe for disaster to requir

his week, Mary McAleese walked away from the steering committee tasked with integrating the GAA, Camogie Association and the Ladies Gaelic Football Association (LGFA), amid anger and recriminations on both sides.
She described the management committee as "less than impressive" and "lacking in vision"; the GAA president Jarlath Burns asked her to reflect on her remarks, which he described as "offensive".
Her presidency was defined by "building bridges": bringing people together to facilitate rather than force agreement. And therein lies the problem. The GAA clearly will not jump into integration; it will have to be pushed.
───

For a psychologist like me, the GAA offers a heady mix. It is a means through which people can define themselves in terms of club, county and country; friends, place and nation. The GAA isn't just an organisation: for some of us it is part of who we are.

This is a really important detail. Because of this strong identification with the GAA, commentary on an issue relating to the GAA can be taken very personally. A few years ago I wrote a piece for The Irish Times
about the institutional misogyny that lay at the core of the GAA. I soon discovered just how personally that criticism can be taken. My charge against the organisation was interpreted by some men as a personal charge of their own misogyny. They are what is referred to in psychological terms as "highly identified".

But institutional misogyny is, by definition, not a personal accusation. It isn't about individuals; it is about what is baked into the fabric of the organisation's governance, leadership and operational structures. It is the systemic discrimination against women that is built into the rules, daily habits and culture of an organisation or society.
The development of the GAA into a cultural powerhouse was built on the work of both men and women. But it catered only for men's sports, while happily welcoming the labour of women in non-sporting roles. Just like the invisible work women so often undertake, responsibility for feeding, washing and organising clubs and players; corralling teams and driving to matches up and down the country often falls to women. Today, though women are involved in many roles across the organisation, power – and all of the most important committee positions – remains with men. And the means of making money remains with the GAA.
The visceral loyalty to the GAA, together with the powerful position it has occupied in Irish life, results in serious blind spots. This is often how it works: powerful groups in any society tend to be oblivious to their privilege. They rarely have capture on how their privilege impacts less powerful groups.
By contrast, built on a foreshortened history and reflective of the less powerful position of women in sport, and in Ireland over much of the lifetime of the GAA, the Camogie Association and LGFA come to the integration table as the junior partners, with fewer resources.
For this reason, successful integration requires redistribution of resources. The less advantaged groups require over-investment to bring them up to the level of the more powerful group. Despite how the term has been used and misused by the GAA over the last two days, this is what is actually meant by equity.
It is a recipe for disaster to require the smaller, less resourced parties to fund their own levelling up. It simply will not happen. LGFA and the Camogie Association are historically disadvantaged when it comes to generating resources. To expect that they fund themselves – as Jarlath Burns suggested on Wednesday – is not integration; it is just another way of shirking responsibility for women's sports.

There's no doubt that a deep connection and commitment to the Gaelic games and the GAA will be driving the behaviour of those tasked with integration. The integrity of the game, sporting clubs and the organisation will always be their main priority. But protecting the interests of the GAA is orienting the leadership to the financial security of the organisation. Because of their privileged position, they seem unaware of how this orientation is recreating the status quo: a culture that prioritises the participation of men and boys in Gaelic games.

Crucially, the impasse here is about resources. For all the talk of finance, facilities and fixtures, money is by far the most important and has trumped the integration agenda. Women's and girls' participation in Gaelic games is being sidelined in favour of the GAA business model. But stalling integration isn't just damaging to girls' and women's ability to participate in Gaelic games, it undermines the GAA's reputation as an inclusive community organisation.
This will be a hard one for many people, women and men, to swallow. It will ultimately undermine their allegiance to an organisation that they have held dear. This debacle isn't about the integration of Gaelic games; it is about the heart and soul of the GAA.

[thewobbler]

Whilst I agree with much of Orla's analysis, I really don't like how she has over egged a negative emphasis on the GAA's "business model".

Here's the fundamental point she is (perhaps willingly) missing: somewhere between 99.5 and 99.9% of all camogie matches and LGFA places that have ever been played, were only able to take place because of the GAA's "business model" created the pitches and stadiums to house those games.

[Rossfan]

Yep, 1 Camogie pitch and no LGFA pitches.
Yet an awful lot of "one club models" seem to operate pretty well.

[From the Bunker]

Home come Soccer or Rugby doesn't have this problem?

[Rossfan]

Are there 3 Rugby or 3  soccer independent organisations?