How camogie became cool

It used to have a dowdy image, but after its 'Chicks with Sticks' campaign the 100-year-old sport is thriving, writes Mary Hannigan.

It was a quiet enough 2003 for Eimear McDonnell. Apart from winning the camogie player of the year award, the Ashbourne Cup with University College Cork, a senior All-Ireland medal with Tipperary, the player of the match award in the final against Cork and the 2003 Texaco award for camogie, making her the first player from her sport to be honoured by Texaco in 17 years. Not to mention finishing her accountancy studies at UCC and starting a postgraduate course in Dublin.

So Eimear, what did you do with your free time? "And we start training soon enough again," she laughs. "It starts all over." The 22-year-old from Nenagh says it with relish. Camogie's off season should be a time for rest. McDonnell just gets restless. There are points to be scored, games to be won, medals to be amassed. "It was a great year. I couldn't have asked for more. What really made it was the All-Ireland. We lost to Cork the year before, and you just don't realise what an All-Ireland is until you lose one."

McDonnell might have a way to go to match Kathleen Mills's record of 15 All-Ireland medals with Dublin, between the 1940s and 1960s, but September's triumph at Croke Park gave her the fourth senior medal of her young career.

Five, then, is the target for this year, which is not just any year: it's the centenary of the sport's association, Cumann Camógaíochta na nGael, 100 years since the first public game, between Keatings and Cuchulainns, took place at Páirc Tailteann in Navan, Co Meath. By the end of the year, if the association's promotional work bears fruit, McDonnell and the other stars of camogie will be getting the recognition they merit and the sport, already thriving, will increase an active membership that already tops 80,000. "People are giving camogie the time of day now, which is brilliant," says McDonnell, "and I don't see why they shouldn't either. Fair enough, it's a bit slower than hurling, but we put in the same effort and the games can be so entertaining."

Last year's Chicks with Sticks promotional campaign gave a fair indication of the new thinking in the association, until then lumbered with a dowdy and conservative image, with camogie players modelling for photographs in their little black numbers. Reaction was mixed. Some applauded, some laughed, some cringed, some seethed, but most acknowledged that it got camogie noticed.

"It's disappointing that that's what it takes for women's sport to get attention," says McDonnell. "It's never about your ability or anything like that. A lot of the players didn't like it. We just thought, my God, we're not like that - we can dress up, we can be glamorous, but let's not make a big point of it. When we saw the photos we just said, for feck's sake, what are they making us out to be?"

Sinead O'Connor, the association's sponsorship and financial manager, says: "It was a case of if it works, let's go with it, although it would be great not to have to do it. I even heard the other day about a women's basketball team doing a topless calendar - these are the things that women's teams have to do." O'Connor's priority now is to find a sponsor for the championship, which, incredibly considering the growing popularity of the sport, has yet to attract the interest of a big Irish company. "It is such a marketable commodity and it's only a matter of somebody seeing the potential. Everybody wants to be part of the GAA, but there are opportunities for camogie when you consider there are 85,000 people playing it around the country and an awful lot more involved around it."

O'Connor's appointment was another indication of the fresh, progressive and ambitious direction the association is taking (the average age of its centenary committee, 27, is another). "There was an image problem before, but the association is now trying to bring in people of a younger age, recently retired intercounty players, people who know what's going on and what the players' needs are. My appointment was the first permanent one in this kind of position in Gaelic games, so that was a big forward step."

O'Connor, from Moycullen in Galway, was an accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers in Ireland and the US but was seeking a new challenge. "I'm sure my colleagues were looking at me, thinking, what is she doing? But I wanted to do something different. It's so interesting and great fun, very different to what I did before, so it is a welcome change." So you're not pining for auditing? "I never pine for auditing!

"Definitely, 2003 was a good year for us. The senior final was covered live by RTÉ and had an audience of 250,000, which was an impressive figure and just showed the popularity of the game. We hope to build on that this year and turn attendance figures right around. The move towards integration with the GAA should help us bring the game to a wider audience, for example by playing double-headers with hurling, but we also want to keep our identity."

McDonnell says: "Hopefully this will be a great year for camogie, but even if we don't get the recognition we think we should, we'll still be playing. I'll love the game anyway, always have, always will. I'll stay with it no matter what."

The 'mother' of Gaelic sport

The sport Camogie

The governing body Cumann Camógaíochta na nGael

Active membership 84,000, in about 500 clubs

First public game Keatings (Dublin) v Cuchulainns (Dublin), in Páirc Tailteann, in Navan, July 1904

First senior All-Ireland final The 1932 final, held in 1933. Dublin beat Galway to win the O'Duffy Cup

All-Ireland winners There have been only seven - Dublin, Cork, Kilkenny, Antrim, Wexford, Tipperary and Galway - with Dublin's 26 senior titles making the county nigh on untouchable until the mid-1960s; it won 10 in a row between 1957 and 1966.

Centenary events Include next month's announcement of the team of the century; a camogie exhibition, opening at Croke Park in March; and a compromise-rules game between Irish camogie players and shinty players from Scotland