Meathwoman's Diary: The ‘craze’ of women’s football

After the Meath ladies’ triumphant win on Saturday 19th July against Kerry, it is difficult to comprehend that women’s GAA was once not taken seriously.

Much like many sports, Gaelic football was once viewed as something that men took part in and women watched from the stands.

The history of women in sport has always drawn me in, as it is still an ongoing topic of interest to this day.

When I lived in Barcelona, I noticed that a huge part of the Irish community in the city was centered around the ladies Gaelic football team, the Barcelona Gaels.

So many women I met were a part of the club, with the training and matches not only being a hobby, but a huge social outing and a way for Irish women who had emigrated to connect with each other and their roots while living away.

Women that had never taken part in any type of sport at home were suddenly joining the team, and sticking to it.

The connections these women made through their love of Gaelic football were inspiring. It got me thinking about how far the sport must have come to have a ladies Gaelic football team in Spain that was ever expanding.

I found out that women’s Gaelic football matches began sometime in the 1920s, but it was advertised as more of a novelty act at carnivals and fairs, rather than a serious sport like their male counterparts. Women’s Gaelic football matches were comical entertainment for spectators back then, while the men’s matches were of actual significance.

It wasn’t until 1974 that the Ladies Gaelic Football Association (LFGA) was founded.

At the time of the first original meeting of the GAA in 1884, there was no mention of women being involved in the sport, due to the social norms of the time being that sport in general was solely for men.

In the last 50 years, women’s Gaelic football has garnered nearly 200,000 international members to date, according to Hayley Kilgallon, author of ‘Unladylike: A History of Ladies Gaelic Football’.

The title of the book comes from the fact that women were deemed to be weaker and ‘unsuited’ to strenuous activity, so the sheer idea of a woman chasing after a ball was deemed to be ‘unladylike’.

Kilgallon said that “reporting on the game between Offaly and Kerry in O’Connor Park, Tullamore, in 1973, styled as the first ladies’ All-Ireland football final in the absence of a governing body, the Irish Press stated ‘that there is a future for this latest craze in the Irish sporting world'.”

Now, that ‘craze’ is a well established sport, with women’s Gaelic football clubs emerging worldwide, creating a sense of belonging and connection through the GAA and with the Meath ladies set for the All-Ireland final in August. What a long way we have come!