Camogie

Articles27/05/2009

Camogie has emerged into the new millennium thriving and prosperous, with new technology directed at improving the game even more. Advances in television have brought the fastest field game in the world for women to an even wider audience.
The end of the nineteenth century was a period of renewed fervour for national identity and culture in Ireland. The Gaelic Athletic Association, or GAA, had been set up in 1884, and many in Ireland were eager to nurture the games that had been part of life in Ireland for so long. Following in this trend, the Camogie Association, or Cumann Camógaíochta na nGael was set up in 1904. The inaugural match under the new Association took place at a Gaelic League Fair in Meath, between Craobh an Cheithnigh and Cúchulainn.

The foundation of the Camogie Association at the start of the twentieth century was in fact a new departure in an age where women were still not afforded the same freedom and opportunities as men, and women’s role in sport was often limited to spectator rather than participator. The Camogie Association allowed women to form clubs and administrate and manage the clubs themselves, and hold positions within the organisation equivalent to the positions of men in the GAA.
The first camogie teams dressed demurely while playing, in long tunics tied at the waist with a belt, something which would gall the average camogie player, or camóg today! The uniform changed over the years from long heavy skirts to gymslips and thick black tights, to the liberated short skirts or skorts of the modern game.

Although neither camogie nor the Association were part of Cumann Lúthchleas Gael, or the GAA, camogie has always been connected to the men’s sports, especially in the clubs where events were organised together and facilities shared. Now the GAA and the Camogie Association are making this unspoken union official by integrating the associations fully, and a scheme is currently underway:

In 2004 the centenary of the Camogie Association was celebrated, and this anniversary breathed new life and vitality into camogie which was sorely needed following the decline of camogie because of the rise in popularity of the ‘new sport’ of ladies’ football. Young women were becoming more interested in the emerging sport and in many places camogie was abandoned completely. Camogie strongholds still exist today, and include Galway, Cork, Wexford, Derry, Kilkenny and Down.

Differences between Camogie and Hurling:
- Skirts or ‘skorts’ (divides short-like skirt) are worn for camogie, and shorts are worn for hurling. Also, camogie teams all wear the same jerseys, but in hurling the goalkeeper must wear a different jersey and be distinguishable from his teammates.
- A free is awarded to the opposing team when a defender strikes the sliotar over their own end-line. In camogie this free is taken from the 45m line (known as a ‘45’), and in hurling a ‘65’ from the 65m line is awarded for the same offence.
- A hurler cannot score using his hands, a camóg can score a point or a goal by handpassing the sliotar over or under the bar.
- There is much more body contact in hurling than in camogie. Doubtless today’s game of camogie is more physical than the pioneering games of the early Camogie Association, but hurling is still acknowledged to be a much rougher sport.
- Camogie is played with a smaller, lighter sliotar than the one used for hurling.