BAN ON HOCKEY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 June 1939, Page 8

BAN ON HOCKEY

BY IRISH ASSOCIATION. NARROW-MINDED VIEW. “Just an Irish tale,” is likely to be the comment of many hockey players when they learn that there exists in Ireland an association with a name that will keep most guessing, the Camoguidheacht association, which has put d ban on hockey for its members. The congress of the association met in Dublin recently to consider among other things that this ban should be removed. Camogie is the women’s game of hurley, which in its turn is rather like a free style of hockey, and is akin to shinty. Both hurley and shinty are older games than hockey as the modern player understands hockey. Some members of the Camoguidheacht are intensely national in outlook, and in opposing the removal of the ban on hockey wish to preserve all Gaelic institutions, and both Rugby and Association football have also been denounced. They claim that these are unpatriotic games for a true nationalist to play.

Civil service sportswomen were the first to bring forward the motion at the recent congress for the removal of the ban. Miss M. Dwyer, tneir spokeswoman, said in defence of the motion: “The ban on hockey has prevented new blood from joining the Camoguidheacht Association. (Irish girls will object to coercion of this kind, and I consider it is an insult to have to introduce protective measures. One of the worst features of this ban is that there is a danger of girls becoming deceitful when they are questioned about playing hockey; and it has been responsible for bringing spies into the Camoguidheacht to see if girls do compete in hockey matches.”

Although it is extremely difficult to believe that women and girls in these days would take such a narrow-mind-ed view against hockey, !t is said that all the Ulster delegates opposed the lifting of the ban, but they retired to catch trains for the North of Ireland before a vote could be taken! “Hockey, Field, and Lacrosse,” which gleaned the information about this strange association and published the story, believes that the departure of the Ulsterites without a vote was the best thing that could have happened. Professor Agnes O’Farrelly (life president), who presided at the congress, is reported to have stated that from the signs she observed the continued imposition of the ban would create difficulties within the association. “If a girl wields a hockey-stick, does it make her less national in outlook than another girl?” To keep the youth of Ireland thinking about nothing but political and national questions seems to be the object of this association. Mr Sean O’Duffy, the director of the organisation. declared that, he opposed the removal of the ban, because people who play hockey would not attend Ceilidhthe or the Gaelic League. "The girls should give a lead to the men of Ireland, who wear Fainne pins and talk about nationalism, and then go of! to attend Rugby or Soccer matches,” he said. When the ban was first imposed in 1934 there had been 349 registered hockey teams; in 1938 there were 123. Irish hockey representatives have claimed that they have had a difficult time in recent years, a fact not to be wondered at when such asi sociations exist.