Eire Og Respond to Inaccurate Dublin Post

Sunday 26.02.2017

Camogie

Carrickmore Eire Og Hurling Club has published a response to a message shared on the Official Dublin GAA Facebook account this evening. In the message a member of the Dublin camogie squad claimed the their game in Carrickmore had been postponed due to the fact that the Tyrone Hurling match was switched to Carrickmore. What the Dublin camogs failed to pick up was the fact that their game was fixed for Pairc Eire Og and not the field at St Colmcille’s.

Carrickmore Eire Og Statement :

Disappointing the Dublin GAA didn’t get their facts right before posting this! The Tyrone vs Dublin Camogie match was never going to be affected by the Hurling game as one was refixed for Carrickmore Football Club grounds and the other for Pairc Eire Og, home to our Hurling and Camogie club! We’d also like to point out that very few pitches would’ve held the rain that fell between 10am and 1pm today in Carrickmore! It might not be ideal that the Dublin Camogs had a 4 hour round trip for nothing today but this had nothing to do with Hurling taking precedence over Camogie!

The original statement can be viewed below…

Dublin Camogie sacrificed for Tyrone Hurling.
February 26, 2017
Here is an account of what myself, my team mates and my managers encountered today.
Read on, it’ll give you a good laugh. This morning I found myself leaving sunny Dublin with the Junior Premier Camogie team. A promising day ahead as we confidently made the journey north towards Carrickmore, Tyrone. Along the way we met strong winds and heavy rain. A few comments passed of how we’ll most likely get mucky from our game, but a hot shower after will sort that out. We continued our journey.

Our spirits picked up as we met a friendly Marty Morrissey in the Topaz service station at Coolshannagh, Monaghan. He posed for a quick picture and wished us luck. A few girls joked that their day was made, we could just turn around and go back to Dublin! We got back on the bus and continued on the road to Tyrone. No more than 20 minutes back on the road and a text comes to one of the girls. It said that the Tyrone Hurling match had been moved to our pitch in Carrickmore at 1pm, most likely delaying our 2pm throw in.

The Tyrone hurler’s were due to play in a double header with the footballers in Omagh, where the pitch was deemed unplayable. Both matches were called off.

A quick call was made to the Dublin Camogie board and a few minutes later we got confirmation. Our match had been cancelled in Carrickmore. The Tyrone hurling match was to be played at 1pm in Carrickmore. Our only choice was to turn our bus around and go back to Dublin. The reason being “the pitch wouldn’t hold two matches”. “Disgraceful”, “is there no other pitch to play on?”, “did they not check the pitch this morning before we travelled?”, just a few of the comments made on our bus as we turned around and headed for home.

Here we are, a Dublin Premier Camogie team who have travelled two hours on a Sunday to get to our match turning our bus around to allow Tyrone’s hurling team play- because their pitch was called off, not ours! This is the kind of thing sportswomen across Ireland have to deal with every single week. We sacrifice so much for our sport and then we have to sacrifice our pitch too….for the lads.

That wouldn’t happen to the lads.

That wouldn’t happen to the lads.

No seriously, that wouldn’t happen to the lads.

In the end the hurling match that was moved to Carrickmore was eventually called off too because the pitch was unplayable. This poses two questions. One- why were both pitches checked so late in the day and only after teams had made the journey. More importantly- why was a Dublin Camogie match cancelled to give preference to a Tyrone hurling match?

This is something I cannot understand. Also, why are we sitting back and allowing this to happen? Why are we not fighting for our deserved place when we have worked just as hard. I would hope that this was a bump in the road and it would not happen again. But maybe thats just wishful thinking.

Thank you for reading, –That GAA Girl. X