The rebellion against the Camogie Association’s insistence that its players wear skorts rather than shorts in compliance with its rules is gathering pace.
Reigning All-Ireland champions Cork and Waterford on Wednesday evening confirmed they would defy the regulation by wearing shorts for Saturday’s Munster final.
“We will be togged out wearing shorts,” the teams said in a statement released by the Gaelic Players’ Association (GPA). “That is our choice.”
A refusal to wear skorts would, according to the rules, result in Cork forfeiting the game, but Ashling Thompson, one of their senior players, told RTÉ earlier that if it “means abandoning the game and handing over the Munster title to Waterford, that’s what we’ll do”.
Inside Gaelic Games: The weekly GAA newsletter from The Irish Times
Skorts v shorts: ‘They’re awkward, and if it’s your time of the month it’s just not comfortable’
Skorts controversy: Camogie Association calls special congress to vote on issue
Ciarán Murphy: Daft scheduling leaves GAA fans channel-hopping between games in biggest Saturday of season so far
The Camogie Association has been asked for a response to the statement released by the GPA.
The issue has rumbled on for several years, with the vast majority of players surveyed saying they find skorts – half skirt, half shorts – uncomfortable and restrictive of their movement on the pitch.
However, efforts to give them the option of wearing shorts were rejected by delegates at camogie’s congress last year.
The issue flared up again last weekend when Dublin and Kilkenny’s players wore shorts for their Leinster semi-final. They were told by the referee, who was obliged to enforce the rule, that the game would be abandoned unless they changed into skorts. Which they did.
The opposition to the rule has hardened since, with Dublin Camogie instructing its referees to take no action if players refuse to wear skorts. A number of league games in Dublin on Tuesday evening featured players wearing shorts, when, strictly, they should have been sent off for non-compliance.
Female Sinn Féin TDs and Senators wore shorts to Leinster House on Wednesday in solidarity with the players, with several Opposition voices calling on the Department of Sport to intervene in the dispute.
The Minister of State at the department, Charlie McConalogue, later called on the Camogie Association to engage with the players and urged them to find a resolution.
“Making sure that everybody is comfortable in terms of participating in sport is absolutely essential,” he said.
The association is to be invited to Leinster House to address the Oireachtas committee on sport, the chairman of which, Labour TD Alan Kelly, has described the skorts rule as “bananas” and “outdated”.
The association’s initial response to the controversy was to stand by last year’s vote by congress, the majority of the delegates female, while saying it could be reviewed in 2027.
But with the pressure mounting in the face of player protests that could yet result in a string of abandoned games in this year’s championship if the rules are enforced, they may have no choice but to relent. Saturday’s Munster final will be the ultimate test case, unless they act before then.
