In 1989, Angela Downey had her skirt ripped while scoring a goal in the All Ireland Camogie Final. It fluttered the heart of many a man. This was rare. The promotional value to the camogie world was phenomenal. In the era of modern feminism, it may merit a High Court challenge. Publicity but not as we want it. Back then it was manna from Heaven.
You have to establish context. Ireland in the 1980s was a different world. Contraception was illegal. And when contraception was illegal, the risks were greater. Nappies were white towels. You didn’t want to be changing them. Ladies wouldn’t take the chance, even within marriage at times. Outside marriage you wouldn’t get close. Bare flesh remained unseen. Not a glimpse. Not a fingerprint lain. Temptation leads to more, so ladies suppressed temptation. Lock and key. Oh man, those vending machines were life changing.
Conor Browne might cringe, but his mother became a sex symbol. A goddess that we craved. He might ask Brian Cody’s generation about that one. And might understand it wasn’t something we saw every day. No bikini shots on social media. Woolly jumpers and long dresses. Ironic that his aunt Ann Downey would train Fifi’s club. There was no Fifi back in 1989. Just Angela without a skirt. A different life.
Ladies are recognised for their sporting prowess in their own right these days. Mags Darcy with Wexford hurlers a prime example. The days of being a sex symbol seem gone. Mindsets are changing and changing for the better. Not purely judged on being easy on the eye. That is not to say some still don’t have their struggles.
During the hot summer of 2013, an injured Katrina Parrock was captured on the Sunday Game. Immaculately tanned, an opportunist camera man took his chance. Social media was hopping. The red top papers on the case. Her mother was of the Downey era. Not indisposed to the attention. Perhaps wishing it upon herself as she suggested “come and get her lads.”
Game on. The media headlines screamed, “ Katrina's looks can boost camogie, says mother.” But as said, Liz Parrock was of the Downey era. Accepted back then but not accepted now. Louise O'Neill might scream. You are judged on goals and points now. People remember seeing her knickers, but actually forget that Downey scored a goal. By 2020, Katrina had a new headline “Sexism in Sport: 'I was absolutely gobsmacked. It made me really mad' - Katrina Parrock.” A far cry from a previous article “Bum Babe: I’d do GAA ad” from the Irish Sun in 2013.
A Facebook screenshot went viral on social media a few years ago. An intercounty camogie player fraped. “Well done to Thurles Sarsfields on winning the County, I’d like to think I helped a few of them get fit during the year.” Monitoring their gym work was not the suggestion. One notable response recommended she should get working on her own clubmen. She must have done. They’ve won Dan Breen since. Camogie has made great strides since then. Judged alone on goals and points.
The WGPA has set out standards, and to be fair things have changed. A Sunday Game slot in mid-summer (now mid-winter), promotional endorsements, sponsorship, Croke Park attendances etc. The Women’s Hurling site has really taken things to a different level. The Woolberto hour of the Ladies world. Controversies, opinions, bitching, stuff that was normally only the preserve of the male game.
There have been commercial interests. Anna Geary and Ashling Thompson for example have put their name to products. Interesting that two from one club are accountable for 90% of promotional work in Camogie in recent years. Some suggest there is competition between themselves. Spreading the commercial load would be healthy. Share the love. Aoife Murray could do with some. Her eyewatering €50,000 mileage bill over the years deserving a whip around.
TV stations have played their part. But, they have not gone with the correct ladies. When Mags departs from Wexford, she will surely be Number 1. It flows from the heart. Aislinn Connolly hesitant too often, forever scanning at notes. Natural flow is expected, from a hurling DNA specimen. Just like the state examinations, looking at notes should be banned. Annmarie Hayes doing quite well. Ursula Jacob top notch. They gotta know their stuff and they just gotta have flow.
The major problem in the female world is the unwillingness of Ladies Football and Camogie to unite. Fixtures clash and neither will change. It is like two siblings grabbing an end of the remote control at home, neither willing to yield an inch. The GAA could solve this, but they won’t, probably for financial reasons. Forcing both under the GAA umbrella is the only way out.
Cork have a proud dual player tradition, not just in GAA but in Camogie and Ladies Football. You could reel off a handful in seconds. Mary O’Connor, Briege Corkery, Rena Buckley, Hannah Looney, Meabh Cahalane, Libby Coppinger etc. All exponents of both codes. But somewhere the dual story got lost. There are political agendas too. The Cork players have threatened to strike. And they will.
What happened the dual player in GAA? The knockout championship went obviously. The power of the manager increased. If a manager lost a game by a point, it was the fault of the dual player. The media got in on the act, and the media tend to oblige when an agenda is being set. Aidan Walsh and Eoin Cadogan are still around. Two of the few who have won medals in both.
Was the dual player the massive problem it was accused of being? Counties are still losing matches. Managers still getting sacked. The big problem these days is fixture list, but at least the hurlers and footballers are playing for their own. Therein lies the problem. The ladies are serving two masters.
Clare have had their dual players, including the scavenging Niamh O’Dea. Tipperary have become a dual county of note, with DCU star Aisling Moloney turning to the small ball last weekend. Orla O’Dwyer of UL is mixing both too, and another UL player Sarah Fryday joined the football squad this year. Roisin Howard has been around too.
There are believed to be at least four more Tipperary footballers being tracked by the Tipperary Camogie squad, that they would like. Aisling McCarthy, and the DCU trio of the Kennedy sisters and Emma Morrissey. McCarthy is Oz bound again and the other three are scouted regularly. Camogie won’t trouble them in the Southern Hemisphere. Tipperary Football would like to have a few from the Camogie squad. Clodagh Quirke, Andrea Loughnane, Laura Loughnane and Miriam Campion.
But how do you manage such a crossover of dual players when internal County Finals clash? And when the club involved, Cahir, are forced to pull from one, to play another? While Cork’s dual problems are at national level, within Tipperary, it is in-house. A little bit of score-settling perhaps? Aisling Moloney turned the other cheek, choosing to play Camogie nevertheless. It wouldn’t have happened in Limerick.
A Limerick fixture clash has stirred up something of a hornets nest. The Newcastlewest club feel aggrieved. Many are playing football with sister club Castlemahon. The Newcastlewest players withdrew from the Limerick Camogie squad in protest. The County Board have since responded, with a very reasonable and factual response.
Paul Sexton the Limerick Camogie manager was asked to comment on the unavailability of players. His response was seized upon. Roisin Ambrose was the first to respond. Then Karen O’Leary and finally Rebecca Delee. Unofficially or officially, it is abundantly clear that the Newcastlewest players are currently on strike.
Ambrose tweeted on a lack of respect. O’Leary offered insight into the fixtures debacle. The interview with Rebecca Delee blew the situation to explosive levels. How the previous Limerick manager Declan Nash (not the hurler) was culled. The players still yearned for him, said Delee. No other man would do. Is he really the José Mourinho of the Camogie World? Wexford Camogie yearned and JJ Doyle came back, but he had won his All Irelands.
Limerick are on the slide. They have had their troubles last year. There was a recent Daddy problem, or perhaps a Mammy problem. Which is worse? Same thing really, they all want their own selected. Then John Tuohy who was the manager a couple of years ago, winning a Munster Title. Well respected on the hurling circuit, he was formally ejected by the players. Work commitments etc. We all know what that means.
So John Tuohy has work commitments, Paul Sexton has family commitments. Declan Nash has no commitments. The Newcastlewest syndicate are on strike. So Limerick Camogie Board officers are reportedly tendering their resignations after convention. The bloodletting worse than Limerick hurlers in their bad years.
And then we move onto Galway. The Hopper McGraths are hurlers. Quality hurlers. Galway have done without. And Galway have won without. Sarsfields have won too. It is a bit like Kilkenny winning an All Ireland without the Ballyhale lads. There has to be a pathway to harmony, but boardroom nights are never forgotten. Oh Geraldine, my love Oh Geraldine.
Back in Harness. Unite for All, Unite for One.