{"id":241662,"date":"2025-12-19T21:21:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T21:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/241662\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T21:21:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T21:21:10","slug":"shane-ross-set-women-in-irish-sport-back-about-20-years-says-patrick-odonovan-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/241662\/","title":{"rendered":"Shane Ross set women in Irish sport back \u2018about 20 years\u2019, says Patrick O\u2019Donovan \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Minister for Sport Patrick O\u2019Donovan<\/a> has accused one of his predecessors, Shane Ross<\/a>, of setting back the role of women in Irish sport by \u201cabout 20 years\u201d. He said Mr Ross, who was minister for sport from May 2016 to February 2020, \u201cunceremoniously trampled all over\u201d a proposed reform that Mr O\u2019Donovan, then a minister of State, attempted to introduce in 2016. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe last time I was in the department as a minister of State I had a rather difficult relationship with the minister at the time, who is no longer in politics,\u201d Mr Donovan said while speaking on Friday at The Irish Times\/Sport Ireland Sportswoman of the Year awards in the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin. <\/p>\n

\u201cI tried unsuccessfully to bring in a rule with regards to women\u2019s roles in the governance of Irish sport and he unceremoniously at the time trampled all over it and set the role of women in Irish sport, I believe, back about 20 years.\u201d <\/p>\n

Mr Ross, an Independent, effectively stepped away from politics after losing his Dublin Rathdown seat in the general election in February 2020. Mr O\u2019Donovan said he enjoyed a better working relationship with Mr Ross\u2019s immediate successor, the Green Party\u2019s Catherine Martin, and Mr Ross\u2019s \u201cridiculous decision\u201d has been reversed.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Kate O\u2019Connor named Irish Times\/Sport Ireland Sportswoman of the Year for 2025Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\"MinisterMinister for Sport Patrick O\u2019Donovan presents Kate O’Connor with the Sportswoman of the Year award. Photograph: Alan Betson <\/p>\n

\u201cThankfully after that [in June 2020], Catherine Martin came in as minister, undid all his handiwork and, together with people like Jack Chambers, reversed that ridiculous decision and prompted the situation where we now have a cross-governance equality, where we are getting the right direction for women in sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Ian O’Riordan: Goodbye Shane Ross and thanks for the sporting memoriesOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

At Friday\u2019s event Mr O\u2019Donovan presented heptathlete Kate O\u2019Connor<\/a> with the top award and told the large audience, which featured some of the elite of Irish sport, that he has been determined to complete \u201cunfinished business\u201d since taking up his current role in January.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Minister for Sport Patrick O\u2019Donovan has accused one of his predecessors, Shane Ross, of setting back the role…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":241663,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[18,19,17,10889,36103,127185,132,127049],"class_list":{"0":"post-241662","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-kate-o-connor","12":"tag-patrick-o-donovan","13":"tag-shane-ross","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-sportswoman-of-the-year-award"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115748332215426479","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}