Historic shift for camogie as skort debate comes to an end.
After a vote at a Special Congress on Thursday, Camogie players will be permitted to wear shorts for competitive fixtures
Camogie players will be permitted to wear shorts for competitive fixtures after a motion was passed by Camogie Association delegates at a Special Congress held in Croke Park on Thursday evening.
Delegates voted on the motion which proposed players be given an individual choice over whether they wear shorts or skorts for games.
The motion passed with a majority 98% in favour of allowing players the choice to wear shorts or skorts.. The change takes immediate effect.
The Special Congress was held in camera with only voting delegates permitted to enter. Delegates voted by secret ballot with a two-thirds majority needed for the motion to pass.
The issue prompted considerable debate in recent weeks after a survey by the Gaelic Players Association (GPA) highlighted 83% of players said they would prefer to wear shorts or believe players should have the option to choose.
The matter escalated when the Dublin and Kilkenny senior camogie teams staged a protest by wearing shorts during the warm-up ahead of the Leinster semi-final on May 3rd.
Club and county teams around the country joined the protest and the issue gained widespread news coverage, prompting the Camogie Association on May 8th to schedule a Special Congress to vote on a rule change.
In light of the vote being passed, Meath Camogie and Na Fianna star Sophia Payne gave her reaction to the Meath Chronicle.
"There has been a lot of uncertainty over the last few weeks. A lot of us were released to play with our clubs and every time we lined out there was a question mark over what we were doing. This is a fantastic step forward and the vote spoke for itself with 98% in favour of the motion." said Payne
"There is a constant fight within the county and outside the county for the sport of Camogie to be treated as equal but this is definitely a step in the right direction. When you are not involved in the sport, it can go unnoticed and ignored that such an outdated policy was in place. We have a few key players that highlighted this to thank. A few high-profile players had the platform, they used it and it escalated from there."
The Na Fianna star said that she felt the Meath players were fortunate because it did not affect any of their county fixtures.
"We had it going on in the background obviously with the club games but we were fortunate with Meath that we could just focus on our training. We have the first round of the championship against Westmeath coming up. There will be 15 girls lining out at the start of that match in shorts and there won't be a question mark over it which is great."