‘Idea of a club championship keeps us going. This storm will pass,I’m confident of that.’
‘Sometimes you have to accept the fact that certain things will never go back to how they used to be. Life goes on.’
TRACEY Kennedy’s Twitter bio doubles as its own declaration of first principles:
‘Educator, principal @CarrignafoyCC, reader, GAA volunteer, proud Killeagh woman, feminist.’
Her online feed is peppered with thoughtful musings which capture her love of books, not to mention various updates and links in her capacity as Cork chairperson, and as principal of Carrignafoy Community College in Cobh. Along with various borrowed quotes that capture the spirit of the time. Such as the one above.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, her brush with cancer deepened her appreciation for frontline medical workers and the value of the health service. She already has had to confront her own mortality – plenty now have to do the same. She thinks maybe that is why she has such acceptance amidst the swirl of disruption that has impacted on so many levels. Why she remains upbeat and philosophical about what has passed, and what is to come.
Last November, she took over as principal of her new school – Sonia O’Sullivan’s alma mater. Is urrently flat out with working around the closure and the impact on the 60 Leaving Cert students, as much as the rest of the students in a school of 330.
Last December at county convention, she began her third year as Cork chairperson – she is the first woman in the GAA to be elected to such a position. ‘I must be jinxed,’ she laughs. Yet she has reached those positions through her actions.
A couple of weekends ago, she could be found at 4am, running the last leg of her school’s 24-hour fundraiser for Pieta House to coincide with the ‘Darkness into Light’ campaign.
‘One of my teachers came to me with the idea,’ she explains. ‘Pieta is a charity close to so many hearts, particularly in education. I don’t know how many times we’ve referred children to their services. I said put me down for one of the last nights. They gave me the closing slot – 4am to 5am! It was lovely to bring it home.’
Her summary of the impact of the coronavirus on the school year applies neatly to the country in general. ‘It has just turned everything on its head, in a way that I don’t think any of us could ever have predicted.’
It’s the little things that can steal up unawares. Like the twinge of disappointment when the notification popped up on her phone recently for what should have been Cork’s first round Munster hurling championship game against Limerick at Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
‘Obviously, there’s a huge level of disappointment. And this is my last year in the role of chairperson and obviously I’m not going to achieve things I would have hoped to have achieved. But this is something that is totally outside my control, or anyone else’s.
‘I’m just so conscious all the time that whatever worries we might have about the GAA, there are lives and livelihoods at stake.
‘My livelihood is not bound up in the GAA – my life might be to some degree – but I’m aware there are so many people out there who have been impacted more than I have been by this, whether through concern for family members, childcare, the fear of getting this disease or bringing it into your home – those things are so much bigger than sport.
‘I also know that sport will ride this out, the GAA will ride this out. This storm will pass. I’m confident of that. That we will get back to our sport. I miss the games hugely, but at the same time, we have to put safety first.’
Five years ago, still short of turning 40, Kennedy was diagnosed with cervical cancer after going for a smear test in January 2015. A lot of people of late have had to question their own mortality. She went through that process.
And it continues to shape her. ‘I wonder if my acceptance of the current situation is as a result of having to deal with serious illness, face your own mortality.
‘I don’t want to overplay my cancer experience in that I was lucky, it was caught early and I was very quickly reassured that my life was okay. At the same time there were moments of panic – I had to have major surgery.
‘Having gone through and accepted all of that maybe makes it easier to accept a situation like this. I certainly couldn’t see myself doing anything that would put anybody’s safety at risk.
‘We probably all know people whose medical appointment was put on hold because of the medical crisis. I would be concerned about people who have missed out, say take smear tests, because that’s my own experience. I hope that anyone who has missed out on those tests will get them as soon as possible. I hope they can get those tests up and running.’
She is so well placed to see the value of sport – whether in the school environment or with Cork GAA which has the most clubs per county and a games programme at adult and underage level that only Dublin rivals.
Given that the club championships and All-Ireland championships mean so much to so many, she thinks the association has been right to wait and see rather than write off 2020.
‘I do. I see it from the education side here. On one side there is this demand for certainty. But there’s a trade-off there because there is still a possibility that things might be able to continue as normal. So why then would you call them off as long as that hope is there?
‘And it’s probably keeping us all going a little bit, that we think there might be club championship or something this year. I don’t think there is a need at this point to cancel everything.
‘Obviously professional sport is different. We’re seeing that come back in Germany and in the Premier League and I think there are lessons to be learned from that.’
‘If you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not making decisions’ – Catherine Cook
Even outside the personal, then, Kennedy has had to deal with serious issues outside of her
i thank the universe for taking away everything it has taken and giving to me everything it is giving balance – Rupi Kaur
control. Pandemic aside, Páirc Uí Chaoimh’s potential over-run and final cost (much closer to €100 million than the original €78m cost) remains a hugely controversial element, again, something not of her making.
A huge amount of work was done administratively when new secretary Kevin O’Donovan was appointed in aligning top-quality coaches and management teams and joining the dots between juvenile and senior in a very focused way.
And yet Páirc Uí Chaoimh has cast such a cloud over the rest. Has that been difficult?
‘I don’t see the stadium necessarily as a dark cloud,’ she replies. ‘Obviously we have concerns over the financial side of it. But the stadium will prove to be an absolutely fantastic asset, not just to Cork GAA but to Cork, to the GAA.’
Is there a figure that can be put on the potential cost to Cork GAA of the pandemic, like the ballpark €50m that the GAA is concerned about losing for 2020? ‘We haven’t pinned down a figure. We have examined a number of different scenarios depending on whether there is action. Obviously there is going to be a financial hit. It’s easier to deal with this crisis perhaps than others because we are all in this together.
‘Everyone is suffering. While definitely disappointing and a setback, that’s all it is. While it might delay our moving forward process, it won’t stop it.’
It’s 30 years since Cork’s historic All-Ireland double, what would have added another layer to this summer’s action. ‘I remember it so clearly I feel kind of old. We would have been marking that event in different ways that we may not get the opportunity.
‘I’m an eternal optimist – I start off every year thinking Cork are going to win the double and my club Killeagh are going to win the county. Some year it will happen!’ History is important. She was fascinated to read the story of Mary Elmes recently. One which fits, in a way, with the 20x20 campaign and women in sport.
She had a personal reason to be tickled when Sonia O’Sullivan made OTB AM’s Cork Mount Rushmore, along with Roy Keane, Ronan O’Gara and Christy Ring.
‘Sonia O’Sullivan is a past pupil of my school – that’s my claim to fame! We had a Sonia O’Sullivan wall in the school. She’s a huge hero of mine. I had an opportunity to meet her once and I was tongue-tied. Terrified.
‘This is only something I have come to realise in the last 10 years.
‘I just took it that there were no great historical women because that is what we were taught. We had Countess Markievicz, Florence Nightingale, a few like that. But I just accepted that all of the great historical figures were men.
‘Over the last few years there has been some great work done on various people to bring to light women who made massive contributions. The story of Mary Elmes who was recently honoured with a bridge in Cork and I had never heard of this woman.’
Her story is captured in the book she has just finished reading: A Time to Risk All.
About the woman from Blackrock in Cork who saved hundreds of Jewish children from Nazi concentration camps while working as an aid worker in France during World War II.
It ties in to this idea of women being written out of history, or certainly not written in enough. Sporting history, too.
‘In the time I’ve been involved in the GAA, the coverage of women’s sport has improved massively. But there is a long way to go.
‘I dream of a time when women’s sport will have the same coverage, the same sponsorship and so on that men’s sport has and we won’t be distinguishing between the two.
‘There has been huge movement in that direction. When you see Dublin being sponsored by the same sponsor across the codes, that’s how it should be.
‘And ladies football and camogie are now represented on Coiste Bainistí [GAA’s Management Committee]. I would like to see a closer alignment. And I’m sure that will happen.’
Mary Robinson and Mary McAleese helped changed the Irish political landscape – so what about her aiming for GAA president?
‘For me, it’s always about Cork, and Killeagh. It’s a very local thing. I’m not sure if I’d have the appetite to be involved in the GAA at national level. And I do like working in education. If you were honoured and lucky enough to be elected, I’m not sure if I’d want to give up my school.’
But whether she ever ventures down that road, she certainly can see a woman being elected as GAA president in the not so distant future.
‘Oh, why not! There are some phenomenally talented women involved. And taking camogie and ladies football, if there was a closer alignment between the organisations, there would be opportunities there to lead the overall body eventually.
‘There are phenomenal women involved in the GAA – I don’t see why a woman wouldn’t become president at some stage.’