COLUMN: Leadership needed after dsappointing week for integration

Mary McAleese’s bombshell resignation as independent chair of the Steering Group on Integration (SGI), accompanied by her extraordinary assertion that the GAA management committee was “lacking in vision”, has blown open a process that had largely taken place behind closed doors. And that is the first problem.

Integration was always going to be mammoth. Combining three organisations with separate management teams, governance structures, cultures and, crucially, budgets required delicate negotiation, compromise and a clearly defined end goal.

And therein lies arguably the biggest problem. The SGI unanimously agreed at its first meeting in October 2022 that the eventual organisation would be “built on the principle of equality”. Yet remarkably, “equality” was never clearly defined in practical terms.

Does “equality” mean equal access to pitches? Equal representation in decision-making? Equal standards of facilities, promotion, player supports or funding

How much funding, and over what time-frame? If you don’t define the outcomes at the start, you’re on a highway to nowhere. And without benchmarks and measurements, how can anyone know whether integration is succeeding?​

NO CLEAR DEFINITION

The make-up of the SGI also deserves scrutiny. Six of its seven principal members represented the organisations being integrated: three presidents and three chief executives. Mary McAleese was the sole independent member.

Equal representation makes political sense, but those steering the process were simultaneously responsible for protecting organisations with their own finances, employees, structures, cultures and interests. Add rotating presidencies and continuity becomes another problem.

The SGI was essentially a vehicle without a driver, lacking the change architecture required for transformation on this scale.

Yes, there was substantial consultation: workshops, submissions, meetings with clubs, counties, provinces, players and staff, a membership survey attracting thousands of responses. (Not that you’d have known it, given the poor communication. What a contrast to how the Football Review Committee communicated). But consultation is not change management.

LITTLE DETAIL

Once the three associations agreed in 2024 on One Association for Gaelic Games by 2027 (itself an extraordinarily ambitious deadline) surely the next step should have been a detailed, transparent implementation framework.

Published workstreams with named responsibility and timelines; risk analysis; milestones; clear governance; financial modelling; a communications strategy; and an escalation mechanism for disputes the SGI and GAA Management Committee could not resolve.

Independent expertise in organisational change management, governance, finance and equality should have been at the top table too, not simply organisational representatives negotiating with each other. Instead, four years later, we're still debating what equality means.

That is a governance problem every bit as much as an ideological one. Finance, facilities, fixtures and governance remain unresolved.

It would make you wonder how much actual work was done over the four years. The published updates from the meetings would suggest: not a lot.

Some of the interventions over the last week, particularly from the current GAA President, have been unhelpful. Jarlath Burns suggested equality could mean the €45 million currently spent preparing intercounty teams becoming €90 million.

A bizarre assertion when the LGFA and Camogie Association already finance intercounty seasons for substantially less, and literally nobody is demanding women replicate the outrageous level of men’s spending. Indeed, integration offers an opportunity to ask not how we find another €45 million, but why €45 million is required in the first place.

ACCESS TO FACILITIES

Some of the laziest armchair commentary has centred on “men’s facilities”, questioning why women should have equal access. As if women haven’t paid membership, run committees, bought club gear, supported fundraisers.

As if women don’t pay taxes contributing to publicly funded facilities. As if underage girls and their families don’t generate money for clubs which ultimately subsidises the adult game. Who is really subsidising whom?

One of the key issues here is resolving access to facilities – and if more are needed, figuring out a plan to resource them and quickly. The bottom line here is that for women and girls, integration is not about intercounty teams.

It is about girls arriving for training to find the best pitch reserved for somebody else or arriving for a game on a pitch without a scoreboard while the “good pitch” lies unused, as happened in one Mayo club last weekend. About having access to food, floodlights and warm, showers.

It is also about fixture clashes that still, unfathomably, force dual players into impossible choices. It is about expenses being paid properly and promptly.

It is about recognising that at this moment, women in GAA clubs do not merely wash jerseys, make sandwiches or organise fundraisers, but coach, govern and lead.

EXTRAORDINARY OPPORTUNITY

As the largest and most powerful organisation involved, the GAA is under particular scrutiny now, especially given accusations of misogyny, and as Director General, Tom Ryan in particular carries enormous responsibility for what happens next.

We are told there are plenty of women on its Management Committee. But representation alone does not guarantee power. Having women around a table tells us little about whether they are empowered when they get there, whether appointments are competency-based rather than quota-filling exercises to meet deadlines.

Whether dissenting voices exist, or are genuinely heard.

Tom Ryan also has an extraordinary opportunity, if he chooses to embrace it. The collapse of this phase may yet become an opportunity rather than a disaster if lessons are learned. Ideally, it will force the uncomfortable conversations that should have happened much earlier.

In Tom Ryan’s hands lies the opportunity to help transform three historic organisations into one genuinely equal association: one where a child joining a Gaelic games club has the same expectation of opportunity, facilities, respect and influence regardless of whether that child is a boy or girl. What an incredible global legacy that would be.

The GAA frequently describes itself as more than a sporting organisation. Here is its chance to prove it. But next time, open the doors. Take your time. Bring in the experts. Define equality. Show us the plan. And then have the courage to deliver it.