GAA star Dónal Óg Cusack has revealed he received death threats after coming out as gay. The All-Ireland-winning hurler was speaking to Brendan Courtney about his experiences in a new episode of the RTÉ series, Keys to My Life.
“Did (I) get a bit of stick? I did,” Cusack said. “There were letters coming in the door, death threats – cut outs from the newspaper… about all the gay men that were murdered, saying ‘you’re next’.
“My father and myself would laugh about that,” he continued. “Because my father would say, ‘The person who did that, they’re probably afraid to go into a dark room with themselves, and they’re sending that to you’.”
Cusack added, “There’s enough hassle in life, your sexuality shouldn’t be one of those. Back to my grandfather’s words when I was a young kid: ‘Live while you can and die when you can’t help it’.”
Dónal Óg Cusack first publicly opened up about his sexuality in 2009, through his autobiography Come What May. The revelation made him Ireland’s first openly gay elite sportsman, as he was an inter-county goalkeeper for Cork.
When asked if he was worried about negative reactions to his coming out, he said, “If you have a problem with that, that’s your problem not my problem. You live your life, I’m living my life. We’re only here for a short time.
“From a sporting point of view, playing was really important to me, being the best I could be, but when I look back at my sporting career, I’m delighted I came out while I was playing. I wasn’t the gay hurler – I was a hurler who happened to be gay.”
The new season of Keys To My Life premiered on RTÉ One on Sunday, August 31. It runs for seven weeks, with host Brendan Courtney meeting Irish personalities who reveal how the places they’ve lived have shaped them.
In the new episode, Cusack brings the camera crew around to various different properties, including his current home in east Cork that he shares with his long-time partner Nathan and their two dogs.
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