Sport

GAA president elect foresees a woman in role

CAMOGIE: THE PRESIDENT elect of the GAA says a female president of the organisation is possible in his lifetime

CLAIRE O'BRIEN
Mon Apr 02 2012 - 01:00

CAMOGIE:THE PRESIDENT elect of the GAA says a female president of the organisation is possible in his lifetime. Laoisman Liam O'Neill, who will take over from Christy Cooney as president in a week, said the organisation has failed in the past "to build on the expertise and the view that women involved in our administration could give us".

Speaking in Mullingar he said he referred to the president’s role in committee appointments and said he intends “to include more women and also to make our organisation stronger by virtue of doing that.” He said this is not for reasons of political correctness, but to use the strengths that haven’t been used enough in the past.

Asked if he believed there could be a female president in his lifetime, he was enthusiastic in his response: “Yes I do, and I certainly hope we do. It’s not simply as easy as saying that and it would be populist of me to say it would happen immediately.”

He said three existing Gaelic sport organisations would have to be united under one umbrella group because “if we were starting off the GAA right now, we would not have the GAA, the ladies’ camogie and football organisations.

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“It’s much easier to build a house from the ground than to pull down three institutions and build one up, that’s the difficulty we have,” he said.

Geraldine Giles, former president of the Ladies’ Gaelic Football Association (LGFA) greeted O’Neill’s comments with caution.

She said the GAA might be slower to move than O’Neill thinks, and while he has achieved a lot in the committees he has worked on to date, she didn’t believe the GAA would elect a female president in his lifetime.

“It would take an awful lot to change and I don’t see it happening,” she said, adding that change has to come from the bottom up, and more women need to serve on club and county administration before real change will occur.

The LGFA is currently represented by a man, Pat Quill from Wexford. Giles said there could be apprehension in the GAA in dealing with a female president.

Aileen Lawlor, the new president of the Camogie Association, said she couldn’t see why there wouldn’t be a female president, and that many old traditions have been broken.

“There’s a great relationship between the organisations,” she said, with great strides being made in the “one club” model to join all three associations at grassroots level.

Meanwhile, Aileen Lawlor became the 29th president of the Camogie Association in Cork on Saturday, succeeding Joan O’Flynn.

It was a day of many changes within the association at Rochestown Park Hotel, with the most eye-catching being the decision to award two points for a successful sideline cut.

Cork put themselves in a very strong position to make the semi-finals of the camogie league with a resounding 5-20 to 1-4 victory over Offaly in the weekend’s sole Division One tie at St Brendan’s Park in Birr.