Female Sport Stars
As one of Ireland’s best known female sports stars, Valerie Mulcahy brings the curtain down on her intercounty career that yielded 31 National titles including 10 senior All Ireland’s it set me thinking about the lack of coverage that people like Valerie receive.
Everybody in Ireland knows Katie Taylor, Sonia O Sullivan, Niamh Briggs and Catherina Mc Kiernan. But there are countless numbers of women in Ireland who play sport on a weekly basis and receive little or no coverage.
The Ireland women 7s side will be in action this weekend in Canada after winning the Bowl competition at the Atlanta 7s last weekend. Players like Louise Galvin and Aimee Leigh Crowe to name just two have gone about their business without much fuss.
Coming back to Valerie, She has won 31 National titles and yet to many she is unknown. If a man had 31 National titles in any sport he would be on the front of every paper following his retirement. I am not trying to devalue anybody’s achievements but more should be made of a person male or female when they retire. Will Valerie be in the running for an RTE Sports Awards Hall of Fame place at the end of this year, only time will tell…
Having spent time in the presence of some of this country’s best known female sport stars and also spoken to a number of them, they are delighted to receive attention and coverage to highlight their achievements on the field of play.
I spoke with Joy Neville yesterday about her time playing for Ireland and also now her new career as a referee which she combines with her duties in Limerick Institute of Technology. She was thrilled to get the opportunity to chat about her rugby life and also her time as a referee. The one thing that I have realised is they are easy to speak to and they have some very interesting stories to tell.
Into the future I hope to bring to life the stories of more female sports stars locally, nationally and internationally. They deserve the same level of coverage as their male counterparts get on a daily basis.
By
Cian Mc Gibney
14/04/2016