Opposition parties rally around camogie players favouring shorts over skorts

Opposition parties have rallied around camogie players who want to be allowed to wear shorts when playing as opposed to hybrid skorts.

The issue rose in prominence after Dublin and Kilkenny were forced to change into skorts to fulfil their Leinster semi-final fixture last weekend.

Sinn Féin senator Maria McCormack said Laois camogie players would be coming to Leinster House on Wednesday and she would be raising the matter in the Seanad.

“It should be about the sport, not about the skort,” she said.

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“We’re calling on the Irish Camogie Association to take this on board and 2027, 2026 is too far away, we need to change the rules for them now so they have the choice.”

She said that “everyone should have a choice, they shouldn’t be forced to wear the skort”.

Ms McCormack said she would encourage players in the Munster camogie final this weekend to wear shorts “100 per cent”. Cork and Waterford have indicated they will wear shorts.

Sinn Féin said Minister for Sport Patrick O’Donovan and Minister of State for Sport Charlie McConalogue should intervene with the Camogie Association.

“When such a majority of players are very clear on this, when we’re in 2025, it should not be that we are treating our athletes in this way that it is going to take two years [for change],” said Social Democrats TD Sineád Gibney.

She said that the progressive values of modern Ireland should be reflected in national organisations. “Women in sports are routinely discriminated against, there’s a huge amount of underfunding, we’ve seen large campaigns in the last decade to try and promote women’s participation in sports.”

“The fact that we are talking about women wearing shorts to perform at the height of their athletic capability is really quite shocking when we have so much else to deal with,” she said.

Independent Ireland TD for Cork North Central Ken O’Flynn said “the most important thing here is the sport” and that he would back the players who chose to wear shorts “100 per cent”.

“If that’s their choice as players, we should be supporting that,” he said. “And we should be moving with the times, and if the players dictate that this is more comfortable, this is what they feel better, we should be accommodating that.”

He said it would be “an awful tragedy” if the match did not go ahead due to a conflict over the rules. “Maybe sometimes people need to stand up for a cause you believe in, even if you stand alone at times.”

His party leader Michael Collins said that camogie players need to be respected, and he called on the sporting bodies to make changes immediately and make sure the game goes ahead.

In the Dáil, Minister of State for Sport Charlie McConalogue called for a solution to the skorts row that everyone can be “comfortable” with.

He said it was “absolutely essential” to find a resolution ”which is comfortable for everyone".

The Minister was responding to Fine Gael TD Joe Neville who pointed to the survey by the Gaelic Players Association (GPA) which found that 83 per cent of players wanted to be able to choose between shorts and skorts.

Mr Neville called for a derogation to the rules to allow the wearing of shorts. He said the rules had to be enforced at the Leinster semi-final between Kilkenny and Dublin, by a referee “put in a very difficult position”.

The Kildare North TD asked the Government to support players “in getting this rule changed”.