+34GAA director general Tom Ryan has insisted the commitment to integration with the LGFA and Camogie Association remains firm after Mary McAleese resigned over the missed 2027 target. Ryan rejected accusations of misogyny and said revised structures proposals could be ready next year.
GAA director general Tom Ryan has said the commitment to integration with the LGFA and Camogie Association remains firm and absolute. He rejected accusations of misogyny in the strongest possible terms after Mary McAleese resigned as chair of the Integration Committee when the plan to complete the process by 2027 was abandoned.
Ryan was speaking to Des Cahill on RTÉ Radio's Morning Ireland a day after McAleese stepped down. It had become clear that the three bodies would not merge by 2027. He acknowledged that the missed deadline was the GAA's own and that the aim had proved too ambitious. The GAA recognised that it was just not ready to do that.
He said: 'We've missed a deadline, it's our own deadline that we have missed. In hindsight, I think what we were aiming for proved just a little bit too ambitious. Our job now is to recast things, learn from that and push ahead.
' McAleese, a former President of Ireland, had been chair of the Integration Committee overseeing the amalgamation. The 2027 target came from the Steering Group on Integration, and she had previously insisted it could be met. Scepticism from some parties involved caused friction. She accused senior figures of not wanting women making decisions at the top level of Gaelic games.
She said the commitment to integration had evaporated. She said: 'The GAA management committee was quite frankly less than impressive, and very disappointing to me as a long-term GAA supporter to meet a body that was so lacking in vision for the future of the GAA.
' She added: 'I hate to say this but I suspect that there are people who are not entirely happy about the idea of including women in decision-making at the top level of Gaelic sports. ' Ryan acknowledged McAleese's resignation was a setback and said there would be bumps along the road. He described integration as a complex undertaking, with specific proposals still needing approval at this juncture. The proposals were in two parts.
The first covered common membership and reciprocation across the three organisations, including universal membership fees, family memberships and membership systems. The second involved organisational structures from club level up to the national governing body. Ryan said: 'The membership piece is ready. The structures piece is not.
' Ryan said both parts had to be proposed together because it was difficult to envisage a common membership without knowing the precise shape of the organisation people would join. Proposed structures were taken to roadshows around the country before the summer. Members and delegates wanted them revised for another pass, and the association was still in the middle of that exercise. A planned Special Congress in October had been due to launch the 2027 integration.
Ryan said he could envisage having the revised structures proposals ready next year. He could not offer a precise timetable for full integration and said a key element would be phased implementation rather than a single big bang. Ryan rejected the idea of a standalone GAA promoting male sports only. He said: 'I don't see a future for us as a standalone organisation, promoting and offering male sports only.
Our future is together.
' He added: 'We will be far stronger as a combined organisation. I believe that. The GAA believes that. I know my colleagues in ladies football and camogie believe that.
' Asked about accusations of misogyny in the public debate, Ryan said he could not accept that charge and would refute it in the strongest possible terms. He accepted that a project of this scale would include different perspectives and points of view. He said he was proud to be part of an inclusive, family-orientated and progressive organisation. In leadership terms nationally and locally, countless women play a huge part in guiding and driving the organisation, he said.
Camogie and ladies football are a huge part of his own club life and family life. Upwards of 30 per cent of club executives are female, he said, and upwards of 30 per cent of clubs have adopted the One Club model, where all codes are promoted equally. He said that experience was no different from thousands and thousands of GAA members across the country.
Labour TD Alan Kelly, chair of the Oireachtas Sports Committee, said he was shocked by the resignation. Representatives of the GAA had appeared before the committee a few months ago and indicated that everything was hunky-dory. Kelly said he had spoken with McAleese in recent hours and she was very upset. He said there were so many questions.
Kelly described the GAA as the best organisation in the country, supported by hundreds of millions from the people, and said he loved the GAA. He was not surprised she resigned, because it was not tenable for somebody of her status to have the plan pulled by one organisation's management committee after she had presented it to the people's representatives. He said there was obviously a democracy issue and that the plan had been torpedoed.
People should call a spade a spade: this was always going to be a challenge and no miracles were expected, but the idea had been to have one club, one organisation by 2027. The resignation had to be a line in the sand on the issue of equality. Kelly called on ordinary people across the GAA, female and male, to stand up on this issue because it is 2026 and everyone should be treated equally.
He said the Minister and the Government should reflect on what had happened.
IrishTimes
The42_ie:This story was compiled and edited by the HeadTopics newsroom and HT AI from the reports above.
Gaa Ladies-Gaelic-Football-Association-Lgfa Mary-Mcaleese GAA Integration Mary Mcaleese Resignation Tom Ryan LGFA And Camogie Association 2027 Deadline Oireachtas Sports Committee 2027 Target
Ireland Latest News, Ireland Headlines
Similar News: You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Mary McAleese resigns as GAA integration chair after GAA seeks 2027 delayFormer Irish president Mary McAleese has resigned as independent chair of the GAA integration steering group after the GAA proposed pushing the agreed 2027 target date back by up to five years. She accused senior GAA management of lacking vision and of resisting women in top decision-making roles.
Read more »
Tom Ryan says GAA commitment to integration remains firm after Mary McAleese resigns over missed 2027 targetGAA director general Tom Ryan has insisted the commitment to integration with the LGFA and Camogie Association remains firm after Mary McAleese resigned over the missed 2027 target. Ryan rejected accusations of misogyny and said revised structures proposals could be ready next year.
Read more »
Mary McAleese may have done the GAA a favour by burning the boatsThe biggest problem the integration steering group has faced is that its work has been so opaque
Read more »
Mary McAleese steps down as SGI chair, accusing GAA of stalling integrationMary McAleese resigns as chair of the Steering Group on Integration, accusing the GAA of stalling efforts to merge the Gaelic games associations. The GAA proposes a 'pause' to re-evaluate the integration plan, citing concerns over the 2027 deadline and the significant financial implications of equalizing intercounty team costs.
Read more »