Tradition is the sport itself, NOT what you’re wearing
Camogie players are furious at being forced to wear uncomfortable skorts, but a vote at Congress means it must continue
IN FASHION, the skort is a style that appears periodically but has never been very popular, probably because it seems a bit of a misnomer — why would you want a pair of shorts to look like a skirt? What is the point of that?
Indeed, what exactly is the point of skorts full stop? It is a question being asked loudly by many camogie players in the wake of the defeat of a motion to adopt shorts instead of skorts at the recent Irish Camogie Congress in Kildare. The motion, supported by Tipperary and Kerry, to replace the Frankenstein garment with straightforward practical shorts was defeated by 64 per cent to 36 per cent.
A similar proposal by Britain and Meath, which would have given players the option to choose between skorts and shorts, also failed to reach the two-thirds majority needed (55 per cent against, 45 per cent in favour).
Skorts — which were initially called ‘trouser skirts’ — were designed to provide greater freedom for activities like sport, gardening or bike riding, while giving the ladylike look of a skirt and preserving the wearer’s modesty.
At first, they weren’t deemed appropriate to be worn during any non-athletic activity, but now female camogie players feel that they aren’t appropriate in a modern athlete’s wardrobe either.
Controversy around female athletes’ kit is nothing new. As far back as the early 20th century, when French tennis pro Susan Lenglen made her 1919 debut in a low-cut dress and rolled-down stockings — an outfit the London press judged ‘indecent’ — what women wear when competing in sport has been the source of comment, even condemnation.
Like Lenglen’s knee-length sleeveless dresses, which were originally conceived of as scandalous, Serena Williams’s 2018 allblack Nike catsuit worn at the French Open — and made specifically to avoid post-pregnancy health issues — was deemed inappropriate and disrespectful by the French tennis federation.
Add to this the controversy around the Norwegian beach handball team’s 2021 move to wear shorts instead of bikini bottoms and the failed 2012 initiative by the Badminton World Federation to make female players wear skirts to ‘look feminine and have a nice presentation’, and it seems that what women wear to play sport is never as simple as it is for their male counterparts.
It doesn’t seem conceivable that the male intercounty hurlers would have what they wear on their lower body the subject of intense debate.
Obviously, the strictness of any dress code is dependent on the governing body that oversees the sport. The Irish Camogie Association is a very old and respected organisation, founded in 1904, but on this subject it seems out of touch with both modern times and its player base.
In response to a request for comment on the skorts issue, the Camogie Association replied: ‘At The Camogie Association’s annual Congress at the weekend, a total of 87 motions across all aspects of Camogie were submitted for consideration. A number of motions dealing with the playing gear worn by camogie players were considered.
‘Motions brought to Congress are subject to a democratic vote, with delegates representing all the members of their units in the decision-making process.
‘The vote was a secret ballot using a digital pad voting system, where delegates vote Yes or No to a motion.
‘This is recorded electronically, and the results delivered on screen for all to see. The Camogie Association is committed to ongoing engagement and feedback from our members.’
While that reply outlines the physical process of the vote, it does little to illuminate the motivation behind its defeat and why the players’ plea to send the skort to the bench is not being supported. The delegates voted as they saw fit, but the delegates are not having their nether regions exposed when they bend over to retrieve a sliotar on a cold, windy pitch.
On social media, the decision
‘I don’t know anyone that wears a skort to training’
has provoked heated debate. Geraldine Kinane, the former Tipperary camogie player and now players’ representative, posted on X: ‘Trust me, shorts are way more comfortable than skorts plus skorts are a terrible image for camogie. It gives the image of an old-fashioned game played by ladies instead of a fast paced, highly skilled and physical game played by athletes.’
RTÉ’s Evanne Ní Chuilinn also said on X: ‘It’s over a decade since I stopped playing camogie and I can’t quite believe skorts are still being enforced by the people who don’t have to wear them. Despite repeated calls from players to get rid. Very hard to fathom.’
Anne Marie Russell, the Kerry Camogie chairperson, was one of two Kerry delegates at the Congress and voted for the motion to adopt shorts. ‘There was a democratic process there which was voted on and that’s a delegate’s job,’ she says. ‘[But] my own players feel that they are uncomfortable, they don’t want to wear them [skorts], they prefer to wear shorts. ‘I suppose there’s a perception out there that they are shorts underneath, but they’re actually not shorts underneath it. They’re like compression shorts. They’re not like a pair of O’Neill’s shorts, not like that.’
With the GAA’s Stop The Drop campaign actively attempting to stop children, especially girls, dropping out of team sports as they progress into their teens, the refusal of the Camogie Association to adapt their playing uniform as per player’s wishes, strikes an incongruous note.
Young women are subject to such intense pressure around body image today that if they are uncomfortable wearing an item of sport kit, it seems insensitive, if not arrogant, not to take their opinion on board. ‘I know for myself — I’d be involved in club level here as well in Kerry — I don’t know anyone that wears the skort to training, nobody, and that’s from under-6 to senior,’ says Russell. ‘That kind of speaks vol
umes on its own.
‘Like if they’re so comfortable and they all love them so much, why don’t they wear them to training two or three times a week? They don’t. When they’re warming up, they wear shorts. From what I can see, they wear skorts because they have to, because it’s part of the rules. You will be sanctioned if you don’t wear them.’
The punishment for not wearing the official camogie kit is a yellow card followed by a red card for continuing defiance of the rules. The question that is posed now is, will intercounty players defy the Camogie Association and turn up for Championship games in their preferred shorts rather than the officially sanctioned skorts?
‘I don’t know,’ says Russell. ‘I know there has been a lot of that in the media, some people are calling for that. I’m presuming that it’s probably coming from the players. That if everybody did, on the first week of the Championship, go out and wear shorts... but we haven’t had that discussion on our end at the moment, whether that’s something our players are going to do or not. We’re not faced with that decision yet anyway and I don’t know if it will happen.
‘It’s always a worry on anyone in any walk of life that wants to protest against something, you put yourself out there, it’s difficult for them. They’re all young women as well, they shouldn’t have to be put in that position.’
While she acknowledges the tradition of wearing skirts in camogie and that there is a ‘uniqueness’ to the skort and that, ‘it does set them apart from the lady footballers or the hurlers’, she says now ‘it should be down to comfort’.
‘Things progress and things move on,’ she says. ‘For me, I suppose, the tradition of camogie or hurling is the hurl and the sliotar. Like you go back they didn’t have to wear helmets, you know. That was brought in to protect them. Was that part of tradition, not to wear helmets?
‘The tradition to me is the sport itself, no matter what you’re wearing or what you’re doing or where you are. Playing the sport is the tradition.’
Players are disappointed that their campaign to bin the skort has not been successful. ‘The practical side of it is that they’re really uncomfortable,’ Kerry senior player Niamh Leen told the Killarney Advertiser this week. ‘They’re constantly rising up and I spend the majority of the match pulling the skort down instead of concentrating on the game. It shouldn’t be that way.’
According to Leen in the same interview, there is a negative psychological impact too.
‘I am very paranoid about the skort, especially the length. You spend a lot of time bending over to pick up the ball and I am conscious of it. Even if you size up, it’s still too short.
‘The only way to counteract it is to wear skins [a base layer] underneath which I don’t really like doing because that’s not overly comfortable either.
‘It should be a players’ vote at the end of the day. We’re the ones who actually have to wear them and we should be the ones having the say. But, unfortunately, it’s not up to us.’
Russell agrees. ‘You just have to go with what they [the Congress] want really, that’s what it comes back to,’ she says. ‘Maybe that’s been lost a little bit in translation maybe. Like I say, there is a democratic system there that has to be respected too.
‘It’s just unfortunate that there is such an outcry from players. Maybe there needs to be a different platform to hear them first or maybe a survey should be done on all intercounty players, at the highest level of each county, and then see how they go.
‘All these girls are out there, they’re playing, they’re giving their utmost, they’re out there training three to seven nights a week between their off-pitch training and things like that. These girls are in the gym, they’re minding themselves, they’re not going to social events, you know. They’re eating, breathing, living camogie and at the least, they should just be heard.’
Russell is hopeful that the imminent introduction of the players’ charter will move things in the right direction. ‘That was a long time coming in the process as well I suppose, and the players were listened to there,’ she says. ‘But look, I’ve no doubt eventually this probably will get passed.’
There is also the proposed integration of the Camogie Association with the GAA — if and when that union happens, it will not be possible to allow the female footballers the freedom to wear shorts and deny it to the camogie players.
Until then, the skort will remain as official camogie kit but also a source of discontent. For tough, competitive camogie players being tied to outdated notions of femininity and being ladylike will continue to rankle. Uncomfortable clothes are a distraction in ordinary life never mind on a fast, competitive sports pitch.
If as Russell says, ‘comfort is all that’s relevant really’, then a compromise needs to be reached — and soon.
‘They live, eat and breathe camogie, they should be heard’
THE Very Camogie League finals take place today and tomorrow. In the Division 2A Final tomorrow, Derry will play Westmeath at 12.30pm. In the Division 1A Final, Galway will play Tipperary at 2.30pm. Coverage on RTÉ2