Lizzy Broderick of the Camogie Association and member of the Hurling Development Committee with Camogie Association president Brian Molloy during the Hurling Development Committee media event at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile.
By John Harrington
Camogie President, Brian Molloy, hopes the blueprint for growth the GAA’s Hurling Development Committee are drawing up will prove to be equally beneficial for Camogie as it will Hurling.
He anticipates a hand-in-hand approach where camogie will be included alongside hurling in any strategy to develop the games in areas where they currently have little tradition.
Exploring opportunities to work on common programmes and initiatives with the Camogie Association is one of the terms of reference of the Hurling Development Committee, and Molloy is confident the HDC can develop camogie as much as hurling.
“The development of our game, particularly in non-traditional areas, is hugely important,” he told GAA.ie
“One of the issues that we find is that there are areas where there are thriving hurling clubs and there is no camogie being played and we need to engage more and do what we can to expand our game.
“I've long said that every girl in the country should be given the opportunity to play camogie. The opportunity, nobody being forced to do anything, but to have the opportunity.
“That's unfortunately not the case at the moment in a lot of areas across the country and the Hurling Development Committee, I think, is going to really help Camogie develop as much as it helps Hurling develop.”
Molloy believes a three-pronged approach to growing Camogie is required - working with existing hurling clubs to also start fielding camogie teams if they don’t already do so, ensuring camogie is given as much support as hurling in newly established clubs, and setting up camogie teams in clubs where ladies football is already up and running.
“Where there's hurling being played and there's no camogie that should be our low-hanging fruit.,” says Molloy.
“When you look at the nurseries in those clubs it's generally 50-50 girls and boys, but it's just a question of putting in place the structures and the supports to enable the camogie push on through then to the U-12s, U14s, U16s, and up through the ranks.
“Then when you're setting up new hurling clubs we should make sure from the outset that it's hurling and camogie being set up. And, also, you'll hopefully also target areas where ladies football is being played. They're girls out on a pitch playing a Gaelic game, so lets try to give them the opportunity to also play Camogie.
“You hear so often of people saying they would have loved to have been given the opportunity to play Camogie but they weren't. I'm sure young lads would love the opportunity to play Hurling as well.
“So, it's all those areas where we can expand the game of Hurling and Camogie. Some will be easier and some will be harder and there are degrees of difficulty that we're going to come up against, but the reality is the more you talk to people the more open people are to getting Hurling and Camogie on the ground all across the country and hopefully that's what this committee will help put a bit of structure around that for us because I think it's needed.”
Camogie Association president Brian Molloy during the Hurling Development Committee media event at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile.
The Hurling Development Committee is currently preparing an investment proposal for financial support from the Irish Government to optimise the Intangible Cultural Heritage Status of Hurling and Camogie.
Molloy believes it makes sense for the Government to help promote hurling and camogie, particularly in a school setting, because the sports are such an integral part of our culture.
“Ultimately they're our national games,” he says. “Camogie and hurling date back through the mists of time. The associations are there for the last 140 years but the games themselves have been played all through history in Ireland and we need to recognise that fact.
“We teach people about our culture in schools, we teach people about our language, our dance, our folklore. We should actually also consider that we should be teaching them about our sports too. They're just as much a part of our Irish culture so we should be willing to stand over the fact that our national sports should get support.
“I know the Government are open to that and I know there's conversations happening around that space and I think there are people on the ground who are very open to that but we need to differentiate hurling, camogie, and football and ladies football as our national sports that deserve a bit of additional attention.
“Also, the health piece is relevant, particularly in the current environment where we can see that female participation in sport is such a hot topic. Here we have an opportunity to encourage more females participate in our national sport.
“We need to be comfortable and stand over it. You go to other countries and they're very comfortable in standing over the need for their national organisations to support their national sports. Equally we need to be comfortable supporting our national sports and we need to be proud of the cultural impact of playing Camogie and Hurling.
“I was over at the US and Canadian finals and you go out and meet the diaspora and there's huge pride. They're people who are so proud of their Irishness and so proud of the connection they make to Ireland through playing our sports.
“Sometimes the familiarity we have at home, possibly we lose some of that. It's only when you go away and you realise the importance of Camogie and Hurling as a direct connection back to your Irishness and a fundamental part of being connected to Ireland.
“I think we need to develop that in areas where hurling and camogie aren't as traditionally played and just give the people on the ground the opportunity to build that connection for themselves.”
Laochra Óg have made hurling and camogie available to hundreds of children in West Cork since being established 10 years ago.
The establishment of the Táin Óg and Cúchulainn Leagues is the Hurling development initiative that has had the most profoundly positive impact on the game in non-traditional counties in recent years.
By wiping away provincial and county boundaries and getting teams from scattered hurling strong-holds to come together it has generated what will always be the driving force for hurling development – a reliable programme of meaningful competitive fixtures against other teams of a similar standard.
Molloy believes it would make a quick and very positive impact if the Táin Óg and Cúchulainn Leagues could also include Camogie teams in the next year or two.
“We need to make it easy for everybody,” he says. “The reality of the situation is that if we put barriers or we leave barriers in place then those barriers will cause difficult in terms of developing it further.
“I've commented in the past that we're very focused on our county and provincial structures, and the reality is that they have a really important place.
“But if you're trying to develop in places like Longford, Leitrim, Sligo, Fermanagh, Donegal, then we need to ignore the fact that we're looking at three different provinces there and just look at how we can grow the game together.
“The Táin Óg League in hurling is a really good example of how that development has worked and we need to expand that out to Camogie and make sure that small clubs in Longford have the opportunity to play against small clubs in Leitrim and Roscommon who are on the same level.
“It should be immaterial that they're in a different province, it should be easy for clubs to play one another across county borders.
“That is not to take from the county and provincial structures and the importance of it in the grander scheme of things.
“But in terms of development we need to focus on what works and what makes it easy for clubs to develop and what makes it easy for schools to develop and what makes it easy for girls and boys to get the opportunity to play our game because that's what it should be all about.”
GAA President Jarlath Burns has made it clear he sees the work of his Hurling Development Committee as a long-term project that won’t yield any immediate results during his time in office.
That being the case, it’s vital that successive Hurling Development Committees carry on the work of the current one using the same roadmap to a brighter future with whatever enhancements they see fit along the way.
There have been many attempts to grow hurling in a meaningful way throughout the history of the GAA but they’ve generally withered on the vine even after some early encouraging gains. That can’t be allowed to happen again.
“Absolutely, 100 per cent,” says Molloy. “The reality is we've been talking about the development of Hurling and Camogie in non-traditional counties for years.
“I grew up in Longford and in the 1980s there was a programme of development for Camogie and Hurling, more so in hurling to be honest, and for a while Longford had twenty-something clubs I think at one time.
“You go there now and there's three or four clubs providing hurling and that's because the game was developed for a period but then the focus drifted off. That's not a complaint, but it is easy to happen. We need to keep the attention on this. We need to make sure the supports are long-term supports, not one-off supports. We need to make sure there's an availability of support at a fundamental level across the association.
“Integration is going to help that as well because I think an integrated Association is in a better position to make sure you have those coordinated long-term supports rather than the three Associations trying to do it in a more disparate manner.”