In 2015, Offaly and Limerick ladies Gaelic football teams were in the National Football League final. Both teams were given the option of either playing in Parnell Park without access to dressing rooms and having TV coverage, or using a completely different venue for the match, with dressing rooms but not having TV coverage. Tipperary and Tyrone were taking in part U21 men’s football final in Parnell Park, after our match. There was not enough dressing rooms to facilitate the four teams. As it happened, there are at least four dressing rooms in Parnell Park so why couldn’t both teams have one dressing room each? Or, can someone explain to me why it is absolutely essential for a men’s team to have two dressing rooms each! Two men’s dressing rooms and two ladies dressing rooms seems to be a simple and reasonable solution to the problem.
As a player on this Offaly team, I can remember the excitement felt by the team that morning. It was a National Final, a chance to go up a division and bring silverware back to the county. We were prepared and felt confident going into the match. We were not allowed to tog out at the pitch before the game as we were denied access to dressing rooms. We had to tog out and do our warm up at St Aidan’s Secondary School while Limerick went to Parnell’s, another pitch close to the venue. We arrived at St Aidan’s pretty early so we chilled in the dressing room there for about half an hour laughing and chatting. One girl on the team opened her gear bag in the dressing room and realised she had brought her hair straightener and hair dryer but she forgot her football boots! That gave us a great laugh and we forgot about the nerves for a while (I won’t mention her name but she knows who she is).
We did our warm up in a sports hall in our runners but we weren’t too bothered about that. We were concentrating on the game and nothing else at this stage. Once we completed our warm up, we returned to the dressing room, packed up our gear bags, got back on the bus and headed to Parnell Park. Upon arrival at Parnell Park, we brought our gear into the function rooms which were provided for us. It was pretty cramped in the room. There was a small bathroom where we attempted to get some physio done. We pushed all the gear bags under the bench to make space. When the time came for our team talk, our managers came in but there wasn’t even enough room for people to sit, so some were left standing just at the entrance of the bathroom. It wasn’t ideal but we got on with it and went out on the pitch.
On the other hand, I know if I was a Limerick player and I was on the losing side on a day like this, I wouldn’t be so immune to the cold and wet. They had to travel for approximately 15 minutes, sitting on a bus, shivering with the cold, upset and disappointed. All they would have wanted was to get out of their drenched gear and have a shower to warm up. But as mentioned by a spokesperson for the LGFA, we should be thankful that the Dublin County Board didn’t pull the game considering the weather conditions and the effect it would’ve had on the pitch for the All-Ireland U21 final. Should we be thankful that our game wasn’t pulled in order to prioritise the mens game? It seems like that’s the normal thing to do at this stage, prioritise the men’s football matches over ladies football matches. What we should be striving for is equality. However, if the LGFA continues like this we will never progress as an organisation.
I couldn’t even begin to imagine what it would be like if this was to happen to a men’s county team on a National Final day. There would be uproar. It would make national headlines and a solution would be found before the game. That’s a big problem with Ladies Football. When we are faced with an issue like this we tend to talk about it for a few days and do nothing, it’s as if the problem never existed. I believe the LGFA and the players are at fault for this. We should demand more respect, fight for the dressing rooms and the TV coverage that we deserve. We don’t train 4/5 nights a week for the majority of the year, stick to healthy eating and fitness regimes, and choose to go training instead of hanging out with our friends just be denied access to onsite dressing rooms on the day of our final.
I’m confident this is not the only incident where Ladies footballers have been disrespected, but where do we draw the line and say enough is enough? I won’t go into detail, but take into account how hawk eye wasn’t used between Cork and Dublin in the Ladies Senior Gaelic Football final. Dublin lost to Cork by a point but had a certain first-half score by their wing-forward which was signalled wide by the umpires. Had Hawk Eye been used this would never have been an issue. As an organisation, we claim to have standards and equality but we have yet to prove that. We still have these issues happening over and over again. It’s one thing watching this go on as a steward or a part of the LGFA organisation, but think about how the players feel. Think about how it affects their game when they have to warm up at a different pitch and then get a bus for 15 minutes to drive to the pitch they are playing on. Think about how a distraught Dublin team trained so hard all year to lose an All-Ireland Final because Hawk Eye wasn’t in operation on the most important game of the year for Ladies Gaelic Football.
What young player would be inspired to play for their County, knowing that Ladies Footballers are being treated like this? I wouldn’t.
Author: Mairead Daly
4th Year BBS (Hons) in Recreation and Sport Management Student