Cork native Jacqui Hurley, author, sports broadcaster and mum of two, talks to Rachel Spillane about gender equality in sport, Kellie Harrington’s gold medal and the inspiration behind her book series, Girls Play Too.

Jacqui Hurley made history as the first-ever female presenter to cohost Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1 back in 2009. Since then she has become a household name and a great champion of girls and women in sport. Having launched her book Girls Play Too in 2020, she has now launched a follow up with Girls Play Too 2. Both feature inspiring real life stories of women in sport. It’s been a busy time for Jacqui who recently returned from the Tokyo Olympics. I began by asking her what the Olympics meant to her and how significant it had been for Ireland.

“I love the Olympic Games, I always have. Being there and getting to share the Irish story was one of the best parts. Two of my best sporting moments have happened at the Olympic Games. Watching Katie Taylor win a gold medal in London 2012 and watching Kellie Harrington win in Tokyo this year”, she said. Watching Kellie was very different to seeing Katie Taylor win in London, Jacqui explained, where there were lots of Irish supporters present.

“The world was watching but very few were there in Tokyo with Kellie. It was just surreal. Watching somebody so special, doing something so special and doing it with such grace even in the interviews and the way she carried herself was great to watch. I got to spend a lot of the day with Kellie after she won her medal and she was so relieved and happy."

Do you think there will ever be complete gender equality in funding and coverage in sport?

I would love to see a day where Croke Park is full for a women’s game. And I do think it’s possible. I believe any government funding should be completely equal and split 50/50. America has legislation put in place that every time you give a boy money for an athletic scholarship, you have to give the same money to a girl. I think these kinds of programmes could make a real difference here in Ireland but it’s a very long-term view and these things don’t happen overnight. I do think we’re making lots of progress and it’s important to say the last five years, in particular, have seen a rapid transition. I can still see some large discrepancies between boys and girls at an underage level, which is when you would like to see the issue being tackled.

It’s been great to see so many female sports presenters coming on screen, do you think we have a good balance or is there more to be done?

It’s the one area where I think we’re doing really well. If you were to watch sport, on RTÉ in particular, you would probably be as likely to see a woman presenting, if not more likely, than a man. You have Joanne Cantwell presenting the Sunday Game, Evanne Ní Chuilinn hosting the Paralympics, Sinéad Kissane over in Virgin Media and Marie Crowe is very prominent too. There are lots of female sports journalists who you’ll regularly see on screen. And we have a lot of really brilliant male presenters like Darragh Maloney and Des Cahill as well. I think it’s the one area where it doesn’t feel like tokenism. RTÉ made a decision a long time ago to change what the picture looked like and I think they’re doing a really good job of that.

What inspired you to write the Girls Play Too series?

When I was growing up, we never had a book like Girls Play Too, and I would have loved one. Sonia O’Sullivan was my absolute hero and I feel like while I read about her in the newspaper, she was the only one I ever read about. I would have loved to know that there were other sports stars and hear about their stories. I thought why am I waiting for someone else to write this book when I can because it’s really important. I wanted to give young boys and girls a glimpse of who their heroes are. And try to make it simple for them, tell a story in a way that they would understand and relate to. It’s probably one of the things in my life that I’m most proud of. With Girls Play Too 2, I had always wanted to do a series. Especially after the first book was published, there was such a wave of positivity behind it that it just felt right to keep going and do a series.

In both books you touch on both the good and the bad sides of sport. How important is it to show young girls that it can be a lot of hard work?

It was crucial for me to showcase this. I didn’t want to do a book that was all rainbows and sunshine, particularly when it comes to female sport. A lot of the athletes in the first book were trailblazers that had to overcome a lot of difficult situations for their sport to even

be recognised. Stories like Fiona Coghlan with rugby - some of the stuff that they had to go through to win that Grand Slam was insane. Overnight trains, three hours sleep and then playing a six-nations match - something we would never ask our men to do. It’s just not good enough. I wanted kids to see that there was adversity that needed to be overcome so they could have a better life. These trailblazers are making a difference for the young girls who are coming behind them.

Where would you like to see the world of sport for women in five years?

I think if it grows like the last five years, I’d be very happy. There are a lot of things I would like to see changed at an underage level, which is where I feel we should focus a lot of our attention. That’s why the book series I wrote is targeted at kids rather than adults. It can be hard to change the mindset of people who have grown up in a different world whereas if you can have a conversation with kids and ask them to call out things they don’t believe is right, that’s where we will see the real difference. If we empower the next generation now, it will make a huge impact in the future.

Girls Play Too Book 2: More Inspiring Stories of Irish Sportswomen, by Jacqui Hurley, published by Merrion Press €12.99, out now.

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