A DOCUMENTARY ABOUT camogie which will be televised tonight tells the story of a landmark moment in the history of the sport.
‘Camogie: Inside The Championship’ was originally intended to be an exploration into an exciting sport which is uniquely Irish. The high stakes nature of championship fare has always been a major draw for documentary maker Ross Whitaker. But when a controversy regarding playing gear for players emerged during the filming process, it illuminated the aim of the project.
The skorts issue features prominently in the first of a two-part series which starts tonight on RTÉ. The issue was first brought to public recognition when the Dublin and Kilkenny teams appeared on the pitch for their Leinster semi-final in shorts rather than the mandated skorts. The players agreed to change in order to prevent the game being abandoned but their actions launched an important battle for choice.
Whitaker’s team were not present to capture that moment, but acted promptly to document the rest of their story which ended in victory, as the Camogie Association voted in favour of choice at a Special Congress in late May.
Players from Tipperary, Waterford, Kilkenny and Dublin explain their struggle eloquently in the episode, particularly Katie Power of Kilkenny and Dublin’s Aisling Maher who are powerful voices throughout.
“We had been filming with Katie and Aisling just a couple of days before,” Whitaker explains to The42 looking back on how the skorts issue developed quickly, and unexpectedly during filming.
“It came around so quickly that they didn’t think to tell us [about the decision to wear shorts]. That day I was actually down with the Tipp team because they were doing mental preparation for the championship ahead.
“We were able to pull together footage that was available to tell the story of the day. As soon as it had landed, we made sure to follow Katie Power and Aisling and Maher to see the human experience of going through something like that and being at the eye of the storm.”
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Whitaker first made contact with the teams he wanted for this documentary back in January. He stressed the importance of access, and the need to be present during training and other forms of preparation in order to tell their story thoroughly. His team began that procedure during the league to establish a relationship of trust and help everyone feel comfortable around camera crews in time for championship.
So, by the time the skorts debacle unravelled later in the summer, the camogie panels were already familiar with the filming process. That allowed them all to articulate a challenge which other GAA codes cannot relate to.
“Camogie is probably the least celebrated of the Gaelic Games in some ways,” says Whitaker, “And they face a lot of challenges, and the skorts situation allowed us to kind of show one example of that.
“You could extrapolate the level of challenge and the level of stress that actually comes with that — that you’re not able to just focus on your sports. There’s all these other issues like sports and integration and there’s been several others over the years that are also on your mind when you just want to play.”
The documentary highlights the human aspect of the players’ lives beautifully too. Dublin’s Aisling Maher discusses the difficulties of saving for a mortgage to buy a house with her partner. In another scene, Tipperary forward Grace O’Brien is seen pucking the ball with her boyfriend who also plays hurling, as they discuss their hectic training schedules.
A particularly poignant moment of the documentary features Waterford defender Orla Hickey and her father Ger who has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. They discuss Waterford’s quest for All-Ireland glory and the pride he feels when watching his daughter perform in elite level sport.
Whitaker explains that finding characters to focus on in a documentary is something that happens organically.
“Ideally, you would hope to get to know loads of the players and then you could sort of decide from them, who would make good characters in the documentary, especially because you’re trying to dovetail that between the different counties and you’re trying to have a variety of characters.
“It sort of takes on its own natural life in that if something’s happening in someone’s life then you sort of want to go and fill in more of that. It happens quite naturally.”
The Cork camgoie team declined an invitation to be featured in the documentary. Tom O’Hanlon / INPHO
Tom O’Hanlon / INPHO / INPHO
Along with the counties who we encounter in the first episode, Galway’s journey to becoming 2025 All-Ireland champions is showcased in episode two. The defeated All-Ireland finalists Cork, who were chasing a three-in-a-row this year, declined the invitation to be included in the documentary.
“We have to respect that,” says Whitaker. “I don’t feel like I have a God-given right to access to anything. They decided they didn’t want what they thought might be a distraction this year.
“Galway took a little bit of persuasion, so we really got our act going after the championship had begun. In a way it worked out quite well because they’re going to go to the final as we all know in the end. In episode two, we pick up from the knockout stages and it just starts getting really exciting in terms of these incredible matches.”
Whitaker would love to expand on this idea and create an annual documentary about the championship stage of the GAA season. Something that would be a close relation of the much celebrated ‘Drive To Survive’ series on Netflix. He wants to include hurling, football and Ladies Football codes too, although he would happily have another season dedicated to camogie as well.
Whitaker’s pitch was well received by the teams who he approached this time, and he discovered that they enjoyed the experience when the production stage came to an end. But the long-standing disconnect between GAA teams and the media presents obstacles in taking this venture further.
The hope is that by watching this documentary, those who believe it to be an intrusion for teams will reconsider their views.
“GAA is actually not set up to deal with those kind of media queries in a really good way. It was even really, really difficult to get the question to them about access.
It’s almost like the organisation isn’t designed to tell its own best story.
“I was talking to a couple of the Galway players last week and I said to them, ‘You probably don’t want to see me again.’ And they said, ’Actually we wouldn’t mind!’
“So, if people got used to it and realised that it’s not that big a deal to have one person following along with you, that access can lead itself to some great scenes and some great footage for people to watch.”
Camogie: Inside The Championship is a two-part series which will air on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player. Episode One will be shown tonight at 10.15pm.
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Dedication, ambition, controversy: Behind-the-scenes camogie documentary airs tonight
A DOCUMENTARY ABOUT camogie which will be televised tonight tells the story of a landmark moment in the history of the sport.
‘Camogie: Inside The Championship’ was originally intended to be an exploration into an exciting sport which is uniquely Irish. The high stakes nature of championship fare has always been a major draw for documentary maker Ross Whitaker. But when a controversy regarding playing gear for players emerged during the filming process, it illuminated the aim of the project.
The skorts issue features prominently in the first of a two-part series which starts tonight on RTÉ. The issue was first brought to public recognition when the Dublin and Kilkenny teams appeared on the pitch for their Leinster semi-final in shorts rather than the mandated skorts. The players agreed to change in order to prevent the game being abandoned but their actions launched an important battle for choice.
Whitaker’s team were not present to capture that moment, but acted promptly to document the rest of their story which ended in victory, as the Camogie Association voted in favour of choice at a Special Congress in late May.
Players from Tipperary, Waterford, Kilkenny and Dublin explain their struggle eloquently in the episode, particularly Katie Power of Kilkenny and Dublin’s Aisling Maher who are powerful voices throughout.
“We had been filming with Katie and Aisling just a couple of days before,” Whitaker explains to The42 looking back on how the skorts issue developed quickly, and unexpectedly during filming.
“It came around so quickly that they didn’t think to tell us [about the decision to wear shorts]. That day I was actually down with the Tipp team because they were doing mental preparation for the championship ahead.
“We were able to pull together footage that was available to tell the story of the day. As soon as it had landed, we made sure to follow Katie Power and Aisling and Maher to see the human experience of going through something like that and being at the eye of the storm.”
Whitaker first made contact with the teams he wanted for this documentary back in January. He stressed the importance of access, and the need to be present during training and other forms of preparation in order to tell their story thoroughly. His team began that procedure during the league to establish a relationship of trust and help everyone feel comfortable around camera crews in time for championship.
So, by the time the skorts debacle unravelled later in the summer, the camogie panels were already familiar with the filming process. That allowed them all to articulate a challenge which other GAA codes cannot relate to.
“Camogie is probably the least celebrated of the Gaelic Games in some ways,” says Whitaker, “And they face a lot of challenges, and the skorts situation allowed us to kind of show one example of that.
“You could extrapolate the level of challenge and the level of stress that actually comes with that — that you’re not able to just focus on your sports. There’s all these other issues like sports and integration and there’s been several others over the years that are also on your mind when you just want to play.”
The documentary highlights the human aspect of the players’ lives beautifully too. Dublin’s Aisling Maher discusses the difficulties of saving for a mortgage to buy a house with her partner. In another scene, Tipperary forward Grace O’Brien is seen pucking the ball with her boyfriend who also plays hurling, as they discuss their hectic training schedules.
A particularly poignant moment of the documentary features Waterford defender Orla Hickey and her father Ger who has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. They discuss Waterford’s quest for All-Ireland glory and the pride he feels when watching his daughter perform in elite level sport.
Whitaker explains that finding characters to focus on in a documentary is something that happens organically.
“Ideally, you would hope to get to know loads of the players and then you could sort of decide from them, who would make good characters in the documentary, especially because you’re trying to dovetail that between the different counties and you’re trying to have a variety of characters.
“It sort of takes on its own natural life in that if something’s happening in someone’s life then you sort of want to go and fill in more of that. It happens quite naturally.”
Along with the counties who we encounter in the first episode, Galway’s journey to becoming 2025 All-Ireland champions is showcased in episode two. The defeated All-Ireland finalists Cork, who were chasing a three-in-a-row this year, declined the invitation to be included in the documentary.
“We have to respect that,” says Whitaker. “I don’t feel like I have a God-given right to access to anything. They decided they didn’t want what they thought might be a distraction this year.
“Galway took a little bit of persuasion, so we really got our act going after the championship had begun. In a way it worked out quite well because they’re going to go to the final as we all know in the end. In episode two, we pick up from the knockout stages and it just starts getting really exciting in terms of these incredible matches.”
Whitaker would love to expand on this idea and create an annual documentary about the championship stage of the GAA season. Something that would be a close relation of the much celebrated ‘Drive To Survive’ series on Netflix. He wants to include hurling, football and Ladies Football codes too, although he would happily have another season dedicated to camogie as well.
Whitaker’s pitch was well received by the teams who he approached this time, and he discovered that they enjoyed the experience when the production stage came to an end. But the long-standing disconnect between GAA teams and the media presents obstacles in taking this venture further.
The hope is that by watching this documentary, those who believe it to be an intrusion for teams will reconsider their views.
“GAA is actually not set up to deal with those kind of media queries in a really good way. It was even really, really difficult to get the question to them about access.
“I was talking to a couple of the Galway players last week and I said to them, ‘You probably don’t want to see me again.’ And they said, ’Actually we wouldn’t mind!’
“So, if people got used to it and realised that it’s not that big a deal to have one person following along with you, that access can lead itself to some great scenes and some great footage for people to watch.”
Camogie: Inside The Championship is a two-part series which will air on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player. Episode One will be shown tonight at 10.15pm.
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