One association for all Gaelic games, built on the principle of equality. That was the mission agreed by the Steering Group on Integration (SGI) when it first met in October 2022.
At their respective Congresses earlier that year, the GAA, Camogie Association and LGFA each voted in favour of “prioritising integration”, setting them on a path towards one governing body to oversee all Gaelic games. Perhaps recognising that the appetite for change would only go so far, the new association will be called the GAA.
At the wheel of the steering group is independent chair, former president of Ireland Mary McAleese. She’s joined by the presidents and ard stiúrthóirí of the three associations, as well as a project co-ordinator and manager.
In the years since its establishment, the SGI’s work has been somewhat covert. In February 2024, the steering group announced 2027 as the proposed date for full integration. At the start of this year, the GAA’s management committee said they no longer believe 2027 is a realistic target, but the SGI disagree, insisting they “believe firmly that it is achievable”.
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The timeline raises concern for Aoife Lane, head of the Department of Sport and Health Sciences at TUS Athlone.
“They’ve probably backed themselves into a corner,” she says of the SGI’s commitment to the 2027 goal. “It’s huge, nobody’s saying it’s easy. I’d actually be of the opinion that it’s probably one of the most complicated mergers you’d ever do, so you would just take your time.”
In 2023, Lane, Katie Liston of Ulster University, and PhD candidate and former Tyrone footballer Conor Meyler produced a policy brief on the integration of the Gaelic codes, making five recommendations as to how a successful merger could be achieved.
However, having went along to one of the steering group’s recent roadshows (consultative events held around the county where members could hear about the SGI’s proposals and progress to date, and ask questions), Lane was left unsure as to the SGI’s approach.
“I don’t think they’ve done a great job on communication. I think the roadshows were an attempt, but I think the messages slightly changed as they went on, because they were finally getting that feedback from the general community,” says Lane.
“I know they’ll say they did have meetings with counties, [and] the GPA [Gaelic Players Association], but that’s still very different to going out there and listening to the people at the coalface.
“I felt, at the one I went to, it had been stripped back to the governance stuff. People asked about facilities, I asked about equality, and they were like, ‘well, we haven’t got to that yet’.”
But understanding the enormity of the task at hand, Lane has no misgivings if the steering group chose to take more time to tease out the knots. “Let’s just slow down,” she says, “let’s do a wave one, a wave two and a wave three, and maybe have a seven-year integration timeline. That’s what the research would say.
“You could merge officially on ‘X’ date, but it could be five years, seven years before you get to that stage where you feel that you have achieved what they set out to do.”
As the finer details on what the integrated association will look like are as yet unclear, Lane is wary it may prove to be a case of “add women and stir” – a term used to describe when women are added to an organisation to improve gender equality, but nothing is done at a structural level to address why the inequality existed in the first place, or prevent its re-emergence.
“It seems to be that, rather than getting a whole new structure, they’re adding camogie and ladies football into the one that exists [the GAA],” says Lane, believing the steering group may be designing an integrated association in the image of “the traditional way the GAA operates”.
“If you create a situation where you put the women’s organisation over there a little bit and give them representation but maybe still have it broken into ladies football and camogie, for me that’s problematic.
“I’d love to see hurling and camogie together, and then get football on the other side. Do it by code rather than gender. Or do it by age rather than gender, why not have a youth section and an adult section? Why not have a colleges’ and schools’ section?
“My worry is that once we keep separating them [by gender], we’re never having those hard discussions around equality, because they’re happening at different tables.”
In an update last year, the SGI said: “The integration of three separate associations, who have spent decades building their own identity, structures, and ways of doing things, is an extraordinary undertaking.” And such an undertaking is bound to meet resistance.
Lane surveyed clubs in her native Galway about their thoughts on integration, noting higher resistance among women’s clubs. She wasn’t surprised. Members were conscious of losing the associations they have worked hard to create and of getting lost in a larger organisation.
There may also be an acceptance of the status quo at play. “That’s the culture around girls and women in sports,” she says. “But are we asking enough? Are we doing enough?”
However, if integration is to abide by the principle of equality, then money needs to be spent. Broadening access to facilities, funding girls’ and women’s teams in line with their male counterparts, expanding player injury funds, having a fair approach to expenses – it all carries a cost.
Lane senses money matters have the potential to cause friction, particularly at intercounty level. “I think the intercounty is causing a bit of anxiety, because can you support women’s teams to the breadth and depth of men’s teams? And can you support the development of women’s teams, like the minors, the under-16s, under-14s, the way boys are developed? There’s a lot of money going in there.”
While it’s unfortunate to have the conversation boiled down to cost, Lane says there’s an opportunity to refine how money would be spent under the integrated association, but again, it’s unclear how the SGI plans to address such matters.
“My sole motive is equality. And it’s come up a few times around equality, where’s that roadmap? There doesn’t seem to be one. There seems to be a perception that integration and equality aren’t the same thing, but that was the purpose of it [integration].
“It’s not like you’re going to get equality in a year, I’m not stupid. I would just love to see a pathway to it in the next five or six years.”
With integration, the new association has a chance to put all Gaelic games on a level playing field. “Where we all belong” shouldn’t just be a mural on the wall at Croke Park, but rather the philosophy that guides the course.
“The culture does need to change,” Lane adds, “but that will help everybody, not just women.”
