Time to WOman up

Getonwithit

Finnoula Britton, derval o rourke, the irish women's xc team, the irish women's rugby team, Katie Taylor

Why are our best international performers women? Is it time for the men of ireland to WOman up? Why aren't irish men as prominent?
GAA?
Drink?
Irish mammies??

TRR

Getonwithit wrote: »

Finnoula Britton, derval o rourke, the irish women's xc team, the irish women's rugby team, Katie Taylor

Why are our best international performers women? Is it time for the men of ireland to WOman up? Why aren't irish men as prominent?
GAA?
Drink?
Irish mammies??

Is this debate suitable for this forum? I think the $hit stirring forum needs a new mod. You should apply.

But here, I'll bite. Didn't a few of the males boxers win medals in London? Didn't the male rugby team win the grand slam a few years ago? Didn't Ciaran O'Lionaird win an indoor medal recently?

plodder

Getonwithit wrote: »

Finnoula Britton, derval o rourke, the irish women's xc team, the irish women's rugby team, Katie Taylor

Why are our best international performers women? Is it time for the men of ireland to WOman up? Why aren't irish men as prominent?
GAA?
Drink?
Irish mammies??

Your last two examples are not in the same league as the first three though :pac:

iDave

GAA? why is that anymore to blame than lads involved in soccer, rugby, cricket, basketball, cycling etc that have never expressed an interest in Athletics?

rom

Rob Heffernan ,Ciaran O' Leonard, Irish golfers, Irish mens won the grand slam in 2009, 3 male 1 female medal in boxing in London.

I would say quite the opposite. With the big pull that the big 3 sports have on the male population there should be more female high level performances. In athletics if you look at most results there are 3 or 4 top women and a big gap back to the rest. With participation level almost on par (some places more females in the race) there is no reason for this.

sconhome

Is it Friday already?!

Definitely one to follow.

RacoonQueen

I agree with the OP

sconhome

Getonwithit wrote: »

Why aren't irish men as prominent?

By prominence do you mean in regard media exposure & public awareness?

The time is long overdue that women's sport got balanced coverage and it may seem more prominent by virtue of the increased focus on providing coverage.

I'm sure there have been Irish athletes consistently performing at the top of their game for years that some of us have never been aware of because we may not be a fan of that particular sport in general.

Krusty_Clown

Six out of Ireland's 29 Olympic medals came from wimmens (with four of those being won by Michelle Smith ). They have a bit of catching up to do I'd say*.

*Tongue in cheek response, as this is a sh1te thread. And yes, I know, women weren't allowed to participate in sport, until the washing had been hung out and the dinner was on the table.

Peterx

Getonwithit wrote: »

Finnoula Britton, derval o rourke, the irish women's xc team, the irish women's rugby team, Katie Taylor

Why are our best international performers women? Is it time for the men of ireland to WOman up? Why aren't irish men as prominent?
GAA?
Drink?
Irish mammies??

Women are great, I could look at them all day.

It's all cyclical and in some cases luck plays it's part. The main thing is that there are bright, intelligent role models for children to aspire to follow. The women are doing a fine job at the moment and fair play to them.

Don't forget the women sailors and triathletes and golfers doing well on the world and Olympic stage. The many Irish women rock-climbing and kayaking really well, I'm sure there are plenty of other niche sports that don't even make it as far as the "other sports" tab in the newspapers websites chock a block with fantastic women.
I was just reading Susie Mitchell's excellent blog about exercising through pregnancy, not an issue for men

The GAA is also great, it provides a healthy outlet all round the country and in many places without it there would be no sport. The fact it simultaneously robs international sports of most of the best talent is an unfortunate by product.

seamus

I suspect to a certain extent there's less "competition" in Ireland between sports for women.

That is, women are primarily drawn to sports which aren't seen as masculine - running being a big one - and so in proportional terms more women do running (as a % of the entire population of women who participate in sports), than men. Rugby seems like the odd one out, but there's less aversion among women to rugby than there is to football or hurling. I'm not sure why that is.

Getonwithit

Ha
Some great responses here! Is there a **** stirring forum? Never spotted it..
I knew this would get a mix of responses but I'm not taking the p!
The last few months (yes I know Robbie Delaney 1956..) have been a real highlight for irish women in sport. Inthinknits true to say that women are more successful at this moment on the international stage.
I also feel that the pull of the GAA is stronger on men and (agree with rom) I think that in our sport we should have more Hp women. Avg road race is defo 60/40 at least women/men..

Getonwithit

Getonwithit wrote: »

Ha
Some great responses here! Is there a **** stirring forum? Never spotted it..
I knew this would get a mix of responses but I'm not taking the p!
The last few months (yes I know Robbie Delaney 1956..) have been a real highlight for irish women in sport. Inthinknits true to say that women are more successful at this moment on the international stage.
I also feel that the pull of the GAA is stronger on men and (agree with rom) I think that in our sport we should have more Hp women. Avg road race is defo 60/40 at least women/men..

Oh and it's not Friday but its snowing on march 26th

sconhome

Getonwithit wrote: »

its snowing on march 26th

Sure we'd snow over Easter 7/8 years ago in Dublin.

mossym

Getonwithit wrote: »

Why are our best international performers women? Is it time for the men of ireland to WOman up? Why aren't irish men as prominent?
?

I'd think there is a more prevalent question. why are all our best international performers amateurs?

i notice one notable exception to both the female and amateur splits though, one of the best if not the best results of the past few weeks was by Dan Martin last week (cue talk of him being born in Brum)

also, i presume you're dismissing g-mac and r-mac(hate those names) as well in that case? ( that's probably fair)

Getonwithit

Well mossy I'm using my goldfish memory and only referring to the last few weeks. Have r and g mac been ripping it up?? I don't follow.

mossym

Getonwithit wrote: »

Well mossy I'm using my goldfish memory and only referring to the last few weeks. Have r and g mac been ripping it up?? I don't follow.

Katie taylor last big win was last summer, so i presumed you were looking outside the last few weeks.

and i wasn't disagreeing with what you said, only that i think there is a bigger question of why irish athletes, both men and women, seem to do better as amateurs than when they go pro. the three i mentioned were the noticable exceptions i could think of

dna_leri

mossym wrote: »

Katie taylor last big win was last summer, so i presumed you were looking outside the last few weeks.

and i wasn't disagreeing with what you said, only that i think there is a bigger question of why irish athletes, both men and women, seem to do better as amateurs than when they go pro. the three i mentioned were the noticable exceptions i could think of

Which ones are amateurs?

mossym

dna_leri wrote: »

Which ones are amateurs?

all of the ladies mentioned, officially at least, are they not?

dna_leri

mossym wrote: »

all of the ladies mentioned, officially at least, are they not?

I guess the women's rugby team are "amateurs". Taylor, O'Rourke, & Britton receive a Sport Council Grant of up to 40K and some sponsorship funding - I would consider them full-time professional athletes.

mossym

dna_leri wrote: »

I guess the women's rugby team are "amateurs". Taylor, O'Rourke, & Britton receive a Sport Council Grant of up to 40K and some sponsorship funding - I would consider them full-time professional athletes.

to be honest so would i under most criteria, then you look at the frenzy about Taylor joining the pro ranks last year after the Olympics and deciding to stay "amateur" , which makes it a little hazy.

to be fair,i think the op was right, Ireland ladies have delivered the goods in spectacular fashion in the past few months. i guess i was just comparing a lot of success at amateur(true amateur or pretty much professional) to success amongst those who have gone fully pro and to me it seems there is a big difference.

much like the typical perception that the Irish like being the underdog, i just wondered did we also enjoy amateur status more.

rom

dna_leri wrote: »

I guess the women's rugby team are "amateurs". Taylor, O'Rourke, & Britton receive a Sport Council Grant of up to 40K and some sponsorship funding - I would consider them full-time professional athletes.

Only Rob gets 40k, rest get 20k or less. I can't see that going far when having to compete internationally.

huskerdu

mossym wrote: »

all of the ladies mentioned, officially at least, are they not?

No, they are not all amateurs.

Derval O'Rourke, Fionnuala Britton etc all compete in events with cash prizes.
There is no divide between amateur and professional athletics.

Any athlete that can get the sponsorship or grant to train full time does, any that dont are forced to get a job to have money to live on.

huskerdu

mossym wrote: »

to be honest so would i under most criteria, then you look at the frenzy about Taylor joining the pro ranks last year after the Olympics and deciding to stay "amateur" , which makes it a little hazy.

to be fair,i think the op was right, Ireland ladies have delivered the goods in spectacular fashion in the past few months. i guess i was just comparing a lot of success at amateur(true amateur or pretty much professional) to success amongst those who have gone fully pro and to me it seems there is a big difference.

much like the typical perception that the Irish like being the underdog, i just wondered did we also enjoy amateur status more.

You are making generisations across sports with different rules and different levels of sponsorship and funding.

The rugby team and amateurs because they need jobs to have money to live on.
One member of the squad is a GAA development officer, so can make a living through sport. I dont know about the rest.

There is a big deal about turning pro in boxing, as this means that you cant enter the olympics and the sport is organised very differently as a pro, but this is not the case in most sports.

mossym

huskerdu wrote: »

You are making generisations across sports with different rules and different levels of sponsorship and funding.

The rugby team and amateurs because they need jobs to have money to live on.
One member of the squad is a GAA development officer, so can make a living through sport. I dont know about the rest.

There is a big deal about turning pro in boxing, as this means that you cant enter the olympics and the sport is organised very differently as a pro, but this is not the case in most sports.

quite possibly. it's probably unfair to make the statement i did and include athletics. i still think it has relevance in other areas though. but given the section this is posted in, I'll let it die now...