Males over 12 now allowed to play in Ladies Gaelic Football

[Cailleach1]

Just that. Males who claim to be women or girls can now play against girls and women on the pitch. Women and girls already get a much smaller share of state funding towards female sports. And, now this bullsht. No details of how they plucked this out of their collective ases arrived at this policy. Having female only sport meant that women and girls were included in sport.

The GAA support the Irish language, but surely any other language can now 'identify' as Irish. The Irish flag must be flown, but again surely they should be 'inclusive' and let any other flag identify as the Irish flag.

We unfortunately have a Taoiseach (PM) who supports this destruction of female sports. When the IRFU stated they would prioritise safety and fairness for women, he asked them to reconsider those aims, and talk to the men who wanted to play in women's sports. In short, just walk all over women in Ireland.

The red herring testosterone level is there, as if it turned men into women.
I confirm that [insert name of Applicant] has:
Transitioned/or is transitioning (as appropriate) from male to female and intends on living their life as a female, and
During the previous 12 months, has a total testosterone level in serum equal to or less than 10 nanomoles per litre (nmol/L).

This is bullish*t. Probably 20 times than most women. 10nmol/L is in the normal range for men. There are probably males on the Irish rugby team with that level. Irrespective; strange times if they're pretending that this level, or any level or lack of testosterone made a female out of a male.

ladiesgaelic.ie/the-lgfa/about-us/governance/

I am so pissed off. I am in gaelic for mothers and others and my daughter playing ladies underage. I am.also an officer of our club. If they look to include a male in the club or I have to play against one I will immediately resign. So much for the campaign of 'if they cant see it they cant be it' to improve girls participation in sports.

It is just so depressing, isn't it? It is so contemptuous of females, female achievement and female sport.

It’s a feckin disgrace! After seeing the photo (last year) of the bald adult man playing gaelic football with teenage girls, I didn’t think it would take long to become official policy that men could self-ID into women’s GAA sports.

“Sure, it’s only ‘ladies football’, who cares, right?” 🙄🤬

When I was growing up, in local GAA clubs the women were only there to make tea and sandwiches, sell minerals and crisps in the clubhouse, wash the team geansaís, run the raffles etc. In recent years, since RTÉ and TG4 have started showing women’s GAA sports on telly, and the sports’ profiles have grown, Ireland has started taking women’s GAA more seriously, so (of course) now is the perfect time for men to self-ID their way into the women’s teams. Sure, it wouldn’t be as much fun for them and there’d be no benefit to them when there was no money or backing going to the women’s games.

Ireland has never treated its female citizens well, we’ve been second-class citizens all my life and the horrible stories I’ve heard from my mother, my aunts, my grandmothers, and my great grandmother confirm that the Irish State has never valued women as well as it should. This is just a new way for Ireland to treat Irish women like shite.

Anyone remember the fantastic ad that Lidl put out as sponsor a couple of years ago? It even referred to how the differences between men's and women's bodies have been used as an excuse to deny women sporting opportunities! What a disgrace of a decision this is.

I'm sorry, women of Ireland. What an utter shitshow.

Looking across the Irish Sea, the photos of Bald Bloke playing against girls made my monocle drop into my tea. It's worse even than this:

www.dailysignal.com/wp-content/uploads/Rachel-McKinnon.jpg

It is utterly rotten, especially when the government is four square behind it. How the hell did compassion for dysphoria morph into this?

This is so fundamentally unfair. I feel so angry for all those women and girls force to play with these men.

This is driven by the constant drumroll to be seen as liberal and miles apart from the Ireland of old, IMO. When Joe Duffy was covering this last year and there was a local GAA leader proudly talking about how their changing rooms were now unisex, he was shocked and appalled when listeners pointed out how unsafe that made girls and women feel. He wasn’t a bad guy - he was trying to be liberal and inclusive but hadn’t considered the impact on women because everyone is either afraid or too cool to call it out.

Finally sense is returning in other sports especially in the UK but the GAA is an amateur organisation not as tied to advertising as other sports.

Please forgive my ignorance but is it officially a contact sport? If so, there are safety and insurance implications too.

It is a contact sport, not as much as the mens obviously, but yes, and absolute serious injury could occur. Also the ladies football is actually not part of the gaa, the gaa is actually a male only organisation except for handball and rounders. Camogie and ladies football are seperate organisations affliated to the gaa

ThisIsJeopardy I loved those Lidl ads. It’s such a pity that the LGFA (Ladies' Gaelic Football Association for the non-Irish readers😀) isn’t bearing any of those facts in mind - I mean setting the testosterone limit at 10 nmols/L is an insanely high level, they’re not even trying to take the bad look off themselves by setting it at something below 5 nmols/L like other captured sporting bodies have 🤷‍♀️🤯

ZeldaFighter women players have been asking the LFGA to change the rules to allow the women’s game to be like the men’s game, which would involve it being even more of a contact sport:
www.offtheball.com/football/ladies-gaelic-football-non-contact-882244

Lots of small businesses in Ireland have been forced to close down due to soaring insurance premiums, likewise sporting events and annual summer festivals. Hopefully, insurers will pull the plug on men participating in women's sport before some poor woman or girl actually gets hurt. This is a car crash waiting to happen.

Ah. The cyclepath. The women's expressions in that photo say it all.

For anyone interested, here’s 2 Irish Sunday newspaper articles about the new LGFA policy:

The Irish Independent -
New LGFA rules allow transgender girls to play Gaelic football – but not everyone is happy
archive.is/8Mysc

The Irish Times -
Transgender players given green light by Ladies Gaelic Football Association
archive.is/npXmG

Why are team coaches actually choosing men over women to play in the teams?

What could possibly go wrong?

Will this wake people up that this is not a brave & stunning decision but at the expense of teen aged girls?

Two sentences stick out in that article on introducing more physical contact into the Ladies game.

Lindsay Peat: ^“The rule always suggested to me that women aren’t
physically able for contact, but if you have women playing against women then I don’t understand why there needs to be a restriction.^

Ailish Considine: "We are well able for physicality, and it's not as if we are going out to play against men, we're playing other women.

Neither remain true now that teenage boys and men could be involved at any time (if that is their personal desire). GA is so widespread in schools and at parish level, and it is not just on the pitch either. After all the blasted inquiries and (belated) public outrage at the historic abuse scandals which gave rise to recommendations on safeguarding; they may as well not have happened. It is back to factory settings of 'f*ck Irish women and girls'. Presume the dressing rooms et al are wide open to any male who wants 'in' for their own reasons. I swear on my pinkie I'm a lovely fellow lady.

Even as far as our Taoiseach not even bothering to pretend Irish women's safety and fairness in sports matter. He said the IRFU should talk to the men, as they are the important ones (paraphrased) - in women's sport! Won't even talk about the women locked up with male sex offenders. The state won't be able to distance themselves from this like they did with the church scandals. They are the drivers and enablers in this.

Indefensible.

Women deserve to be safe.

Towards the end of the Indo article BeLo*Go are quoted as being unhappy with these rules because they don't just allow men to self-ID into women's teams and require a letter, cert, meaningless testosterone measure to do so.

They comment: "this policy sends a message to trans women and girls, their families and allies that they are not welcome in ladies' football." That is correct. And that is as it should be.

This is going to peak a hell of a lot of rural communities.

I'll be seeing it first hand in my own family. While most of us are pretty peaked or GC, there is one person who's a fully paid up TRA. That person is also steeped in the GAA, and knows most of the local ladies team.

Well, we can see where overreach led in Scotland.

I know!!! The brass neck on them complaining that this extremely generous version of sporting self-ID isn’t permissive enough for their liking 🤬

I think the fact it became a constitutional issue was instrumental in it being reported on in Scotland (and wider UK). The wider press and media (with broad reach) weren't really reporting on it before that. Local press (and those following IPSO rules) sheepishly reported male as being female rapists. Even judges having a helpful 'Bible' in the Bench Book as to who should be kow towed to) I mean look at the laws they were pushing. Raped women having no right to request same sex care (thankfully losing that). Then the GRR, with no ifs and no buts. They deliberately voted for legislation to allow incarcerated women be locked up and trapped with males; even those accused of sexual and violent crimes - and you were a 'bigot' and 'racist' if you thought otherwise.

They have it all stitched up in Ireland. Bit more reporting now (and very grateful to those who are doing this), but nothing forcing honest sunlight or demanding accountability.

I saw this yesterday and I am so disappointed in the lack of concern shown for the welfare of girls and women. It's so clear that consultation was limited to groups with vested interests in promoting this policy.

Like hell it's a "no contact" sport. Technically the rule on tackling is that there shall be no deliberate contact. I'm peripherally involved with my daughter's team and I've regularly had to help with girls who've gotten hurt in a collision, including taking bangs to the head. My daughter plays in the full back line and she puts her body on the line when blocking and tackling. The thoughts of her doing so against somebody who has had the benefit of male puberty is terrifying.

Cailleach1 RTÉ reported, briefly, on their Twitter feed about Sturgeon and controversy over the male rapist in a women’s prison in Scotland. I have no memory of them getting involved in reporting the male sex offenders being housed in Limerick women’s prison. A couple of TDs mentioned the similarities between Scotland & Ireland, and were given an anodyne and unhelpful response from the Govt.

It’s baffling to me how people (sporting bodies, politicians, and journalists in this case) can stop themselves from thinking things through to logical conclusions on the issues surrounding sex-based women’s rights. The cognitive dissonance would explode my head 🤷‍♀️