[1][2] A variant of the game "hurling" (which is played by men only), it is organised by the Dublin-based Camogie Association (An Cumann Camógaíochta).

Women in the early camogie games used a shorter stick described by the diminutive form camóg.

The suffix -aíocht (originally "uidheacht") was added to both words to give names for the sports: camánaíocht (which became iománaíocht) and camógaíocht.

When an organisation for women was set up in 1904, it was decided to anglicise the Irish name camógaíocht to camogie.

The Official Launch of Camogie took place with the first public match between Craobh an Chéitinnigh (Keatings branch of the Gaelic League) and Cúchulainns on 17 July at a Feis in Navan.

The sport's governing body, the Camogie Association or An Cumann Camógaíochta, was founded in 1905 and re-constituted in 1911, 1923 and 1939.

Thus, although camogie was founded by women, and independently run (although closely linked to the GAA), there was, from the outset, a small yet powerful male presence within its administrative ranks.

It was no surprise that camogie emanated from the Gaelic League, nor that it would be dependent upon the structures and networks provided by that organisation during the initial expansion of the sport.

Of all the cultural nationalist organisations for adults that emerged during the fin de siècle, the Gaelic League was the only one to accept female and male members on an equal footing.

There are four provincial councils and affiliates in Asia, Australia, Britain, Europe, New York, New Zealand and North America.

Counties compete for the elite All-Ireland Senior Camogie Championship in which the O'Duffy Cup is awarded.

Provincial championships take place at all levels, independent of the All Ireland series which has been run on an open draw basis since 1973.

Camogie competitions for club teams featuring under-14 players are played in four divisions as part of the annual Féile na nGael festival.

The sport is known to have arrived in places in such as Great Britain, North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Argentina.

In North America camogie is played in the United States, Canada, and in parts of the Caribbean.

[citation needed] The national organizing body for Gaelic Games in the United States, with the exception of New York City, is the USGAA[19] where camogie can be found.

The United States has sent a number of camogie teams from the US to compete in the GAA World Games in 2016 and 2019.

Eleven counties competed for the elite All-Ireland Senior Camogie Championship in 2018: Clare, Cork, Dublin, Galway, Kilkenny, Limerick, Meath, Offaly, Tipperary, Waterford, and Wexford.

Picked in 2004[24] Partly due to biological and physiological differences between men and women, some argue that Camogie lacks the physical drama found in the male equivalent sport, hurling.

This applies across the board, internationally and domestically, where camogie and women's Gaelic football also suffer by comparison to the physical drama contained in the male versions.