By Ciaran Woods
c.woods@gaeliclife.com
TUESDAY'S joint championship launch between the mens and ladies Ulster Councils was a very clear and visible statement of intent by both parties that their level of co-operation has taken another notable step forward.
The event at Belfast's Ramada Hotel was the second such launch this year, with a joint camogie-hurling launch already having been held in Armagh.
Ulster Ladies President, Armagh man Gerry Doherty, said that he was delighted with how the first ever joint launch had gone, and referred to it as a "milestone event" as the two sides continue to forge closer links.
"It was great to be involved in such an event, great to be asked. We had an integration meeting this week and everyone involved was delighted with how it had gone and with the positive feedback there has been."
The initial term of 'integration' has since become 'co-operation,' with the former term having rested uneasily with those involved at both club and county level. As a result, the process had hit a plateau with little progress, but the induction of the new Director-General at Croke Park has re-ignited the process.
"With Padraig Duffy coming in, there seems to be a whole new drive at national level, a new impetus. Ulster is well ahead of things and he would have been very au fait with what was going on in the province and is now keen to put the push on elsewhere."
Integration Officer with the Ulster Council, Aileen Tohill, revealed that the launch was just one of a series of joint initiatives in the process, with work having been ongoing for over two years now. The Coach Development Programme, the elite camp for Under-16's and the courses being ran by the Ulster Council are just some examples of how the codes have worked together for mutual benefit.
"It was a conscious decision taken at integration meetings that any opportunity for the ladies or camogs to piggy-back on what the GAA were doing, then we were going to use them. The ladies really took their opportunity, with a great turnout by players on the day.
"It's not about taking over, it's about letting people look after their own affairs, and making the most of opportunities to raise the profile or address a bigger audience, and of course to increase media attention which would help the development of the ladies game and camogie."
Co-operation with the Ulster Council has served the ladies well to date, and Doherty is confident that the ladies can share the stage with their male counterparts once again this summer. In the past, ladies games have been played as curtain-raisers to mens matches as an after-thought, not suiting the teams involved and with the ladies games suffering as a result. The President was keen to reassure that this would not be the case for future fixtures.
"We played our minor finals at Clones last Sunday, and we're hopeful our senior final will be played at Casement. That is all coming through co-operation with the Ulster Council and things like that certainly make it worthwhile for us.
"We're very happy to get the opportunity to play as part of major double-headers. However, we've done the token games before and we can't afford to have our own games to suffer as a result. Any teething problems from the past have hopefully been well ironed out at this stage, and should the chance arise again then we'll be happy to accept."
With an exciting series of games ahead in the Ulster Senior, Intermediate and Junior championships, the Ulster President is relishing the action which awaits over the coming months, with the senior championship getting underway on the first weekend of June.
"I'm looking forward to it, I really am. There are no clear favourites, and that's going to make for a very open championship. Hopefully, given how well our sides have done in the National Leagues, we can repeat that at the All-Ireland stage and hopefully we can also make an impact at senior level, which I think would be the final piece in the jigsaw."
