Newstalk's Andrea Gilligan pays attention to the issues others ignore. Women's issues

Irish Times

09-05-2025

It's a week when the airwaves are awash with talk of people in traditional garb, be it men in cassocks or
women in skorts
. But while the robes worn by cardinals at the
papal conclave
signify the wearers' lofty status, the hybrid garment foisted on
camogie
players only underscores how overlooked and undervalued they feel, as Andrea Gilligan hears on
Lunchtime Live
(
Newstalk
, weekdays).
On Tuesday Gilligan speaks to Aisling Maher, captain of the
Dublin
camogie team, who, along with their
Kilkenny
counterparts, wore shorts at the Leinster semi-final, only to be told – by the male referee – that the match
would be abandoned
unless the players changed into skorts.
'It's definitely a career low for me,' says Maher. 'It's the worst thing you can do to a group of players who have put years of preparation into trying to play at the highest level.'
The teams had been protesting against the mandatory wearing of skorts after a
Gaelic Players Association
survey found that 83 per cent of intercounty-camogie players want the option for shorts. The customary garment isn't just seen as impractical – 'It's not fit for purpose,' says the Kilkenny player Laura Murphy – but also leaves players feeling exposed. 'If there's photos, you're saying I hope they didn't take any bad ones of me,' says the Dublin player Emma O'Byrne, understandably sounding embarrassed at the notion.
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While the players speak in a casual, understated manner that belies their obvious determination, Gilligan is more forthright in her language. 'It seems absolutely bonkers in 2025 that people can't choose,' she remarks while rebutting texts from pro-skort traditionalists: 'The guards' uniforms have changed.'
The host tartly adds that the Camogie Association declined an invitation to appear on the show, instead issuing a statement that new skort designs are being tested. A more infuriating example of institutional pigheadedness you'd be hard pressed to come up with.
Gilligan's handling of the topic captures her show at its best. With her genially chatty style, the host isn't one for doggedly pursuing rigour and precision; instead she allows discussions to flow at their own pace – and her self-effacing admissions to any gaps in her knowledge help put guests at ease, in a way that more overbearingly confident hosts might not. (She happily concedes that she never played camogie.) It all fosters an easy ambience that helps to draw out insights on issues that might otherwise be sidelined.
This is particularly so if the topic concerns women, whether it's the camogie controversy, the show's regular Making Babies slot (about exactly that) or Wednesday's item on a new survey revealing that nearly 90 per cent of teenage girls in Ireland struggle with anxiety. Gilligan talks to Tammy Darcy of the
Shona Project
, the charity that commissioned the survey. She's not surprised by the results. 'It's constant pressure all of the time,' says Darcy, pointing to the stress caused by social media and school. 'It's no wonder this is impacting on their sense of self.'
The contribution of Aisha Hassan, a schoolgirl ambassador for the charity, is more authentically telling. 'We feel like we're too scared to ask for support, just in case we're seen as dramatic or attention-seeking,' she says. Gilligan is a quietly supportive presence throughout, while still playing the self-deprecating host. 'Bebo was the only social-media account when I was coming out of college,' she says. It's the online equivalent of saying your first car was a Ford Model T.
[
Miriam Lord: The cardinals wore frousers. Sure why can't the girleens wear skorts?
Opens in new window
]
Gilligan's relaxed approach isn't always conducive to arresting material, with her item on driving-test delays meandering. But in this instance it's a valuable discussion, aided by the presence of the
Today FM
host
Alison Curtis
,
who talks about the rarely acknowledged anxieties felt by girls such as her teenage daughter: 'Everything seems fine, like a duck gliding across the water, but panicking underneath.' If only everyone paid such attention to the concerns of young women.
The determinedly male College of Cardinals features prominently on
Drivetime
(RTÉ Radio 1, weekdays), as the election of a new pope gets under way. Barry Lenihan's vivid dispatches from the
Vatican
evoke the febrile atmosphere surrounding the
conclave
, be it the views of tourists soaking up the atmosphere, the yapping interruptions of marauding Roman dogs or the reporter's phone line dropping out so spectacularly at one stage that the emission of black or white smoke seems like an efficient means of communication in comparison.
Given the strict secrecy around papal voting, however,
Cormac Ó hEadhra
and
Sarah McInerney
, the programme's presenters, soon turn to camogie's sartorial circus in search of news. McInerney speaks to the
Waterford
player Niamh Rockett, who reiterates that skorts are both restrictive and revealing: 'The last thing you want to be worrying about is how you look and if the photographer is going to take a picture of you in a compromised position.'
The
Sinn Féin
Senator Maria McCormack notes that such archaic sportswear is limiting in other ways: 'If we want to grow this sport we have to make young girls feel respected and empowered.' Which, as Gilligan has already heard, can be hard enough as it is.
Female empowerment is definitely not the vibe one gets from Drivetime's sport bulletin when the reporter Greg Allen discusses the matter with RTÉ's GAA correspondent, Marty Morrissey. A journalist well versed in the administrative workings of Gaelic games, Morrissey repeatedly notes that delegates at the 2024 Camogie Congress mandated the wearing of skorts: 'I'll put this in perspective: it was a democratic process.'
Maybe so, but the sound of two men musing on the optimal sportswear for women comes across as a throwback to more restrictive times, however unintentionally: concluded are democratic too, after all. At least the Camogie Association gives ground on Thursday, calling a
special congress
on the matter later this month. Sometimes it's best just to move on.
Moment of the week
Newstalk presenter Pat Kenny. Photograph: Newstalk
An experienced and authoritative broadcaster, the Newstalk host
Pat Kenny
is inexplicably prone to occasionally shocking gaffes. Those wondering why might find illumination in his conversation with his station colleagues
Shane Coleman
and
Ciara Kelly
on Tuesday's
Newstalk Breakfast
(weekdays).
Discussing children's bad behaviour, Kenny confesses to early indiscretions of his own: 'My mother and my father never knew that I was electrocuting myself regularly,' he jauntily remarks. 'I was always messing with electricity.' As Coleman hurriedly warns listeners not to try this at home, Kenny carries on regardless: 'I took out the Christmas lights, took bulbs out of them, plugged them in, stuck my finger in and was electrocuted.'
Kelly remarks that it sounds like a superhero origin story, and certainly Kenny's childhood electricity experiments point to his future career: as a presenter, he's always had an aptitude for, ahem, current affairs.
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