Sir, – I have enormous respect for Jarlath Burns and for the GAA as one of the great voluntary achievements of Irish life. But the row over integration with the Camogie Association and LGFA raises an uncomfortable question (“Both men and women built the GAA. It’s time women were given equal treatment”, Opinion, September 12th).

If the GAA believes in equality, why does the money appear to be the immovable object? The practical proposals emerging from the process tell their own tale: a levy on match tickets, and the ending of players’ nutrition and team-holiday grants, while the GAA president rules out asking Government for help and stops short of committing the GAA’s own reserves.

The smaller organisations cannot reasonably be expected to finance their own journey towards equality when their historical disadvantage is precisely what has left them with fewer resources. That is not integration; it is asking the junior partners to pay for the privilege of joining the senior one.

If integration eventually means merely putting three names under one roof while leaving the existing financial hierarchy intact, we may discover that the GAA has integrated its structures without integrating its principles. – Yours, etc,

ENDA CULLEN,

Armagh.

Grounds for concern

Sir, – The Camogie Association and LGFA will continue to encounter difficulties in obtaining training and playing facilities until such time as the GAA relinquishes exclusive ownership of their playing grounds. In many instances, these playing grounds were originally community owned, but they are now GAA grounds.

It is imperative that communities are empowered to provide, own, administer and maintain their own playing facilities. This will ensure that local sporting grounds and recreational facilities are equitably available for all sports irrespective of age, gender or ability. When this happens, we will honestly be able to say “the GAA is where we all belong”. – Yours, etc,

FRANCIS BEIRNE,

Roscommon.

Mary McAleese is right

Sir, – Continual institutionalised belittling of women has resulted in ingrained cultural patterns causing systemic problems for women and girls in Ireland.

For me, a woman born in 1959, my friends, my mother and my grandmothers, we have all had problems in Ireland because we are women.

Church, State and, as highlighted recently, the GAA are all culpable.

Mary McAleese has caused no offence to me by calling out misogyny, though the GAA has taken “exception” to her words and actions. – Yours, etc,

MARY Mc LOUGHLIN,

Sutton,

Dublin 13.