Sir, – Well done to Anna Kenny for providing a rational voice on the appalling and consistently poor treatment of players who are involved with the Ladies Gaelic Football Association (LGFA) and the Camogie Association at club and county level ("One step forward, two steps back for women's sport", Opinion, Sport, December 8th).
Having been involved as a player with the GAA at all levels for over 20 years and, in the past decade, working in a management capacity with camogie and LGFA at club level, the difference in treatment of brothers and sisters from the same family is like night and day.
In her final point, Anna Kenny correctly states that, “Our daughters, sisters, mothers and nieces deserve better.”
The reality everyone involved in sport with the LGFA and the Camogie Association at all levels accepts is that until those two organisations join up with the GAA at a national level, nothing will change.
How can it, when the GAA owns all the assets and the ladies teams have to go cap in hand every time they need to organise a game or a training session.
You are either inside the boardroom making and taking decisions that matter or looking in at those who are.
Heads of agreement were drawn up for the amalgamation to happen in the recent past, however it did not get over the end line.
Why?
Were the senior power brokers in the LGFA and the Camogie Association not prepared to dilute some of their influence and status in order to bring their players under the umbrella of the GAA, despite the massive benefits that would accrue?
After last Sunday’s debacle, the time for holding on to power for the sake of having it in individual organisations which have no pitches or stadiums for games is over.
Dialogue and compromise are required and then amalgamation.
The Camogie Association and the LGFA must join with the GAA and have one body overseeing both female and male GAA activities – and be treated as equals by that body. –
RAY SILKE,
Coláiste Iognáid,
Gaillimhe.