Armagh Ladies football manager James Daly is furious that the request to stage an All-Ireland Semi-Final double header in Croke Park has been rejected.
Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph earlier this week, Daly unleashed a scathing attack at the GAA saying:
The way I look at it is that sexism is alive and well in the GAA today. We have had our game in place for months and the men (Mayo and Dublin) had a drawn game in Croke Park. Within an hour, everybody is moving our game to make way for them.
Armagh were originally down to play Dublin in the Ladies Senior All-Ireland semi-final this Saturday in Parnell Park and 5pm with the Intermediate semi-final between Kildare and Offaly preceding it. A request was lodged to combine the women's fixtures with the Dublin v Mayo replay this Saturday, with the women's fixtures to be played after the men's fixture has ended.
The LGFA released a statement earlier this week revealing that their submission had been rejected on account of the Hurling finals taking place the next day and have rescheduled their games for an earlier time to avoid a fixture clash.
Just to confirm. We have explored hosting a double header in Croke Park next Sat. This won't happen because of All Ireland Hurling Final.
— Ladies Football (@LadiesFootball) August 30, 2015
Daly however, questions why the men's GAA didn't volunteer to undertake this compromise.
Why could they not have played their game at 2.00pm, and let our game stand the way it was?They could have, without any doubt, have let us play in Croke Park and give all the girls a big day out. But the men's GAA don't like to do those things. They like to let on that they are integrating, but it is all for show
Fixture collisions between men's and women's GAA occurred during the 2012 season when the Kilkenny v Galway Hurling All-Ireland replay usurped the place of the Ladies GAA All-Irelands. Daly believes that this is a repeat of that situaiton:
President (Liam) O'Neill said at the time that this will never be done again, but here we are again. As they do, they just pushed in and I am not happy at all
The Ladies matches will remain in Parnell Park with the Intermediate game beginning at 12.15pm followed by the Senior clash at 2pm.
