Trans inclusion could be “beginning of the end” for female sport - a Sport Ireland report

The infamous photo, which the media voluntarily supressed at the request of the player, in case it was weaponised or something, I can't remember the waffly reasons given.
I'm always more than happy to share it

I've been a keen follower of the GAA [ i.e.Gaelic football men's and women's; hurling for men; and camogie/women's hurling -which has always been a separate women's organisation since 1904 and has only recently agreed to join the GAA, which up to the development of women's Gaelic football in the 1970s was all-male].
I'm a 'supporting member' of my local GAA club - my playing days are long over!

Apart from a flurry of debate and the infamous, staged melodrama of a transwoman playing in a 'non-league' match, [see photo] to be honest I had forgotten that the issue of transwomen playing women's GAA was 'a thing'.

It has never arisen in any of the clubs I am familiar with, so I may be guilty of generalising from my limited experience. In practice, what is 0.2% of a population of 5m, and how many of them will want to play women's Gaelic football or camogie? Obviously, as a matter of principle the policies should be changed to say that woman=biological woman, but on the ground it probably has not been a burning issue.

I don't think that the general population ever bought into the TWAW/self-ID thing which the likes of TENI pushed for in the wake of the great success of the marriage equality referendum in 2015.

All the political parties fully supported the introduction of the GRA in 2015, but it was striking that in the last general election campaign the same parties had quietly dropped or hidden their pro-trans policies, whereas they used to be on all their election manifestos and literature.

So I'm not surprised that there was this much concern about transwomen in women's sport in 2023, and I'm hopeful that 'the tide is turning' and the opposition is even stronger in 2025.

It's the high point of the camogie year today, as DeanElderberry pointed out, it's the All Ireland Final between Cork and Galway. The players will be wearing shorts rather than skorts for the first time, and that has been the huge controversy in camogie, rather than transwomen gate-crashing women's GAA.
I hope that means that it's not happening much in practice, and will soon be written out of the GAA's policies.

Props in their personal dramas

Many of these people have quite genuinely never given a single thought to women's feelings.

They don't see women as sentiment beings with feelings, like them. They see women as their support animals.

They never seem to appreciate girls and women would and have felt the same. EG, the ones mentioned who arrive kitted up and leave without showering or changing. I wonder how they feel 🤔

Nah, swanning around in a 'Protect the dolls' T shirt gets your far more likes than putting in any actual thought or effort, so why bother?

Because they were a lot more comfortable when this was being made a woman's problem I suspect.

Why aren't the male sporting bodies not speaking up? A 'you can play (fnarr!) with me' type thing. I recall there was a 'you can pee with me' aimed (fnarr!) at men with trans identities. But I either imagined it or it's sunk without trace. The blokes should step up for their fellow men. Where's their message of inclusion? It seems to have been noticeably lacking for trans sports bods who are biologically female. They'll take the knee, be-rainbow their laces and armbands for the LGBTQ+. Well here's an opportunity for the men to actually do more than make empty gestures that cost them nothing.

Surely anyone who wants to play a non-competitive game can do so, anywhere, any time? Or are you saying councils, GAA etc should be making courts, changing rooms etc available for non-competitive basketball or rounders or whatever?

The idea that you are being somehow prevented from having something, just because you demand whatever you want NOW, is truly ridiculous.

It's such an obvious case of a group of self-important people seeking more rights than everybody else - and then audaciously complaining that they have none when they are told that they can only have their own fair share like everybody else.

My neighbour doesn't have the use of my house and I don't have the use of her house - but that doesn't mean that either of us can sit and wail that we are homeless and have absolutely nowhere warm and dry to live, because of nasty meanies deliberately depriving us of our human rights.

Very welcome that this in being taken seriously in Ireland, where the propaganda position of "self ID is fine, and there are no problems" has been pushed so hard.

I do think that for any sport where such a thing can happen safely all organisations that (correctly) are firm about having no male bodies in female competitions should have a "fun" non-competitive mixed sex stream where everyone who doesn't have a hope of winning anything can do the activity as a way of staying active. It's clearly wrong for the male body's physical advantages to be allowed to give anyone an advantage in a female competition but we are mainly a nation of couch potatoes and anyone who just wants to chuck a basketball around without getting particularly invested in winning shouldn't have all opportunities to do so taken away.

Thanks for the link. It's good to see Ireland talking about this although I'm afraid I no longer have the headspace to do much more than shrug at hurt feelings.

It is biology that is polarised. Women's sport is for females and, as far as I'm concerned, any compromises that might be needed will have to be made by men's sport.

And at the same time, TRAs merrily stating that Ireland has self id and there are no problems there.

Totally deluded.

Yes. It's also a case study in how the imposition of transgender ideology trashes every institution it touches. Women self excluding from changing rooms and showers, leaving sports, keeping silent because of the intimidation and bullying, while volunteers and officials who've dedicated their lives to running sports because they're good people, leaving as it's scary to be threatened by zealots.

The narrative is about alleged vulnerability while the reality is more akin to a totalitarian regime.

@BettyBooper you and me both, I nearly used a sweary word.

I hope there are conversations about this at the Camogie finals.

Surely they could actually manipulate that to their own advantage, though - and still maintain their narrative?

"Of course, we all 'know' that I'm a woman, but I'm so brilliant at my sport, that I can actually beat the men at it too - so I compete in the men's competitions, which I'm allowed to do on a 'vague technicality', and I still win!!"

Unless, that is, that they can't actually beat other men - in which case they need to accept that this is not one of their particular talents, and so they will have to either train harder or concede defeat.

Just like a mediocre adult of either sex can't expect to just enter the under-7s events if they aren't good enough to compete with their own peers in their own category. What actual glory would you derive from being 28 and proving that you can beat little kids?!

Where does it actually end? I'm utterly useless at sport, but even I could win the 100m and strut around smugly as the victor with my gold medal - if I decided that I (and I alone) was allowed to use a motorbike!

If this report was commissioned in 2023, why is it being reported on now? And has it been acted on? Gaelic football and camogie still allow men and boys in the female category, as far as I'm aware.

This is so frustrating. It is because of misplaced sympathy such as this that men have been able to manipulate their way into women's sport. People shouldn't be eligible for a category they don't qualify for because it makes them sad if they are excluded. It pisses me off so much.

In interviews, transgender athletes described moves to exclude them as having left them “heartbroken, distraught, gutted and betrayed”. The report said: “Some of these were difficult to hear, and it was clear that emotions were very strong.”

It concluded that it would be difficult to find compromises, with views on both sides “polarised”.

Just play sport in the category of your sex. Simple.

'Distraught'. Jeez.

These men are starting to make me really angry.

Report prepared more than two years ago. I wonder why it is leaking out now?

probably because respectable official Ireland is so conformist that it had to wait for other countries to start some pushback

PS, many many thanks to @Ereshkigalangcleg for this thread.

Woah

I mean, not surprising, but ffs

I can’t share as paywalled but this is the first line of related article in Irish Independent
“Some national sports bodies were afraid of losing government funding if they participated in a review of guidance on transgender participation in sport in Ireland. “

Wow.

It's a mix of 'no shit sherlock' and 'ffs', isn't it?

Yes, it's dangerous to allow men to beat women for sport. Astonishing we needed a report to tell us this.