Ladies hoping to play their part in the ‘new’ Pairc Tailteann

Maybe it was just the old cynic in me, but the irony of using players from the Meath Ladies football and camogie teams to promote Meath GAA’s Royal House Draw raised an eyebrow and a wry smile.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s great to see Amy Gaffney and Siofra Cleary involved in the photoshoot along with senior footballer Mickey Burke and hurling goalkeeper Shane McGann, but isn’t convenience a great thing when you are selling something.
One of the taglines used to promote the Royal House Draw is that the newly redeveloped Pairc Tailteann will be for every one in Meath GAA, but that hasn’t always been the case.
Meath senior camogie team have played in Pairc Tailteann sparingly over the last couple of decades, and that’s being generous.
The only times I can recollect them playing at Meath GAA HQ was a few games in 2012, since then they have played in Croke Park more times than they’ve played in Navan.
Further investigation with some powers-that-be suggest that they might have played in Pairc Tailteann four, maybe five, times in the last decade. In that spell they have won three All-Ireland titles and are now operating at the highest grade.

Trim GAA is the designated home for Meath camogie and a much valued one, they are delighted with the treatment they receive there. It is a top class facility and suits their needs, but it has come to the stage that Meath Camogie Board don’t even ask for the use Pairc Tailteann any more because they are invariably told ‘NO’.
Enquires as to when the last county camogie finals were played on the hallowed turf on the Commons Road also drew a blank, ‘not in my living memory’ was the general reply.
Meath Ladies football have fared a little better in recent years. The SFC final between Boardsmill and St Ultan’s was played in Pairc Tailteann in 2016. It hasn’t returned there since and I can’t recall when the last county final was played there beforehand.
The county team have had a few outings in HQ, but the opportunity to play double-headers alongside the men’s senior team are never availed of, such an amazing opportunity lost.
And don’t even get me started on the huge sums the ladies football and camogie hand over to Meath GAA every year to use the training facilities at Dunganny, the only facet of the association that does so by the way.
Who’s to blame for the failure to get big games played in Pairc Tailteann? The finger always ends up pointed in all directions.
Queries to the Co Board have led to a variety of excuses over the years from ‘the pitch was unavailable’, to ‘no one asked us’ and many wide and varying excuses in between, some of which were ‘off the record’.
Maybe there is a new found belief in Meath GAA that the ladies have as much a role to play in the association in the county as the men and that their entitlements such be equal to those of their male counterparts.
At the risk of upsetting some in the PC brigade, aside from the thousands and thousands of women and girls who play the games and coach, there is also a huge contingent of women in the GAA who sell the lotto tickets, organise the local bingo, make the tea and sandwiches for referees, Co Board officials and reporters who attend games.
Who partners the men at the ‘Strictlys’? Who made up half the cast at the Broadway fundraiser a couple of years ago? Who (mostly) drives the kids to coaching sessions, training and games the length and breadth of the county? The answer is the same - the women of the GAA.
So as I’ve already claimed, maybe there is a new found belief and recognition of the efforts the women put in and maybe Pairc Tailteann will be made more available (that wouldn’t he hard, I hear you say) in the future.
There is no doubt that Operations manager Seamus Kenny and his fundraising team have great ideas in place in terms of novel ways to raise money for the re-development of Pairc Tailteann and when that project is completed it will be a stadium EVERYONE in the GAA will be proud of, and hopefully EVERYONE in the GAA will get to use.
The Royal House Draw is a series of three draws over the next 16 months with the top prize of a three-bedroom semi-detached house up for grabs in each draw.
The aim is to raise €1.5 million towards the re-development and that necessitates selling 12,000 tickets at €100 each for each draw. There is also the very appealing early-bird option of buying a ticket for ALL three draws for just €250.
Tickets are on sale online at www.royalhousedraw.com or from your local club where there are incentives for clubs to earn commission and boost their own coffers if they sell a certain amount of tickets.
A new Pairc Tailteann can only be for the benefit of Meath GAA and hopefully everyone with an interest in the games in the county will buy a ticket and sell a ticket, with men and women together all pulling in the same direction something amazing can be achieved.