Donal Og's Book

[Reillers]

Reillers you are not much of a hurling supporter if you are saying this is the first you heard about it! I am from Wexford and was told almost 2 years ago that Donal was Gay.

As I've said earlier in this topic, a page or so ago, it's old news, in Cork anyway, it's been said around Cork for the last 4/5 years I'd say.

[EddieMerx]

I can't believe this is news to people I thought it was widely known but not spoken about in public as it doesn't matter what sexulaity he is

[Reillers]

I can't believe this is news to people I thought it was widely known but not spoken about in public as it doesn't matter what sexulaity he is

Apparently it is, shocked a lot of people. I think to be fair it's widely known in Cork, it always has been.

Sure I remember hearing a rumour, and it was a rumour at best that after the handbags at Thurles a few years ago, when the Cork lads and Clare lads had to go up to Dublin that when they were there a Clare player was slagging Donal Og about it and there was a bit more of the handbags between them. Only a rumour of a rumour but I mean that was years ago, and it was known then.

People just didn't talk about it I suppose, there'd be the odd abusive comment thrown at him by other supporters and apparently players, so I suppose that other supporters from different counties knew about it as well, but apparently it wasn't as widely known as I or a lot of other people thought.

[heffo]

I can't believe this is news to people I thought it was widely known but not spoken about in public as it doesn't matter what sexulaity he is

Apparently it is, shocked a lot of people. I think to be fair it's widely known in Cork, it always has been.

Sure I remember hearing a rumour, and it was a rumour at best that after the handbags at Thurles a few years ago, when the Cork lads and Clare lads had to go up to Dublin that when they were there a Clare player was slagging Donal Og about it and there was a bit more of the handbags between them. Only a rumour of a rumour but I mean that was years ago, and it was known then.

People just didn't talk about it I suppose, there'd be the odd abusive comment thrown at him by other supporters and apparently players, so I suppose that other supporters from different counties knew about it as well, but apparently it wasn't as widely known as I or a lot of other people thought.

I was told from a good source that what sparked that row in the tunnel was a comment made to Donal Og about his sexuality..

[EddieMerx]

Kudos to Donal for coming out and making it public, I am no fan of him and his GPA approach but I don't think he has made this public just to sell a few books. I think it is brave to come out and admit it as although most people suspected it he could always laugh it off as idle gossip. It would be foolish to think that he is the only high profile player who is Gay.

[Minder]

He said that when he told Sean Og he never had the same relationship with him.

[Reillers]

He said that when he told Sean Og he never had the same relationship with him.

All his teammates came out and support him, Corcoran and Sean Og especially, fair play to them as well. All legends.

[Reillers]

He said that when he told Sean Og he never had the same relationship with him.

That's hardly a suprise jumping into the same showers and sharing a room with someone who is attracted to the male form. Now the fox is a straight fox, but tho'n big bronzed O'Hailpin has been a pin up boy and I'm sure very attractive to those into muscular men 

Talk about taking it out of context, but sure those kind of remarks are only to be expected.
And well, I guess it's clear who the people in the stands that will be making those "funny remarks" will be..Ah sure though, they're only jokes and a bit of fun.

[longrunsthefox]

Reillers, I did sink a bit there but the whole thing is a cynical bullsh*t way of selling his book. It was common knowledge he is gay... so what?!! Donal Og has been attention seeking for a number of years and brings a lot of the abuse on himself. There is another high profile gay player who just gets on with it and no-one bothers about it.   

[dowling]

I had a chuckle at this :


Carey defiant on Cats' GPA stance after Cusack jibes

By colm keys


Tuesday October 20 2009

DJ Carey has defended his former Kilkenny colleagues for their lukewarm support for the Gaelic Players' Association, a criticism raised by the association's chairman, Donal Og Cusack, in his forthcoming autobiography 'Come What May'.

Carey, a founding member of the players' body and one-time president, admitted he couldn't disagree with Cusack about Kilkenny's involvement with the GPA but added that Donal Og had to appreciate the different backgrounds they were coming from.

Carey said he condemned any personal abuse directed at Cork hurlers during the league game in Kilkenny earlier this year when the home side won by 27 points and got a standing ovation coming off the field.

Cusack claims a member of the Cork backroom staff heard a supporter in the stand roar, "Where's the nigger now?" in the first half, an apparent reference, he says, to Sean Og O hAilpin.

"I would challenge any supporter, from Kilkenny or anywhere else, if I heard that remark at a game. Of course it is unacceptable but abuse comes with the territory. I've been spat at myself coming off the field at games in Kilkenny."

Cusack is scathing in his criticism of Kilkenny and some of their high-profile players for not putting their collective shoulder to the GPA wheel in a much more meaningful way over the last decade.

"I always think that Kilkenny could have driven it on as much as we (Cork) did but maybe they were just genuinely happy with their own lot. That's their choice, but even they have benefited along the road," he wrote.

"We have made different journeys. We struggled and Kilkenny left us out there to walk the path alone. Through all the troubles we have had we have often thought how much easier and how much more effective for all players this would be if Kilkenny and Cork were marching together. Fine, let's flake each other on the pitch but let's pull together off it.

"It hasn't happened like that though. The more strife we have in Cork, the more pointedly 'of the establishment' Kilkenny seem to become. The more disorder there is in Cork, the more Kilkenny likes to be thought of fondly as the land of milk, honey and contentment.

"The GAA's version of 'The Stepford Wives'," writes Cusack.

"They went their way I suppose and we went ours. They are a great team but I wouldn't be gone on them bar say Eddie Brennan, who I know stands up for the GPA in a tough dressing-room environment.

"I understand they have their different ways and who am I to say which way is the best or right? We all have to take our journeys and do what we have to do, but Kilkenny? I wouldn't be gone on them. I imagine the feeling runs both ways."

argument

Carey said the backgrounds of both teams and their respective counties had to be factored in to give Cusack's argument about Kilkenny a perspective.

"Donal Og is someone who I have a lot of time for and without the input of the Cork players coming together, there wouldn't be a GPA. That's a fact. Their strength of unity in 2002 made the GPA. And I am still wholly supportive of the GPA even though I earnestly feel it is an organisation for current players, not past players.

"But prior to 2002 Cork didn't have a huge involvement in the Gaelic Players' Association. When they had their own troubles later that year it galvanised them, gave them the confidence to know that strength in numbers could get them places. They carried that to the GPA.

"At that time many of the current Kilkenny players were young; Tommy Walsh, JJ Delaney, even Henry (Shefflin) was still in his early 20s. They were more concerned with making the Kilkenny team.

"There were no problems in Kilkenny. The players got everything they sought and more. And that's the environment they came from, which was wholly different from Cork. That has to be taken into context too.

"I agree that if Kilkenny had been more supportive, as Donal Og says, the GPA would have been stronger.

"But Kilkenny were so well looked after in their own county it was hard for these players to be militant against their own board, a unit of the GAA. There were never battles with the board. Brian Cody, and in particular Ned Quinn, made sure of that," said Carey.

"Cork were more conditioned to it because of what went on in their own county. And I admire them greatly for it. But in Kilkenny Ned Quinn made sure we never had to go public on anything. I always stood square with the GPA and I suffered in my own county for that. I took some abuse for it.

"But I had spent my time travelling the country listening to complaints from players in other counties. That's why I became so immersed in the GPA."

Carey said that if Cusack felt Kilkenny was a land of milk, contentment and honey, that's because it was.

"Because they were successful and so well looked after by the board, the Kilkenny players would have felt loyalty to the board and that factored in to the approach to the GPA. Every county is different." Carey admitted he too turned down a lucrative offer from Lucozade Sport because of respect for C&C and Club Energise.

Cusack holds up Sean Og O hAilpin as an example of GPA solidarity for turning down Lucozade Sport for Club Energise (ironically O hAilpin did a Volkswagen promotion last week despite Opel's sponsorship of the GPA awards scheme).

On the subject of the abuse last April, Carey is sure it came from a minority.

"There is a minority in every county. I've suffered from it in Kilkenny. I think genuine hurling people in Kilkenny and other counties appreciate Cork for the hurlers they are."

- colm keys

Irish Independent

Proof for those who need it that those players in Cork pushing isses were working to a GPA agenda.
And I'm a little surprised Donal óg comes accross as slightly bitter towards the Kilkenny players although  I suppose after the treatment metted out to Gerald McCarthy in particular maybe I shouldn't be.

[Lecale2]

I'd say the Kilkenny boys don't give a f**k what Donal Og thinks off them when they're polishing their All Ireland medals.

[dowling]

I'd say the Kilkenny boys don't give a f**k what Donal Og thinks off them when they're polishing their All Ireland medals.

I'd say so but you'd have thought Donal could have been more gracious and maybe he is elsewhere. You could assume he's making the point that Cork hurlers were disadvantaged because they were 'carrying' the Kilkenny boys as far as GPA issues were concerned, as if the Cork boys had so much more to deal with.

[longrunsthefox]

I'd say the Kilkenny boys don't give a f**k what Donal Og thinks off them when they're polishing their All Ireland medals.

Exactly... and if Donal Og and his mates had spent less time agitating they might have done better. Biggest cheer of the year was at grounds around the county when Kilkenny hammered Cork. Him and that Dessie Farrell have that eejit Sean Cavanagh's head astray too with the result he can't play in All Ireland semi according to Harte. 

[Minder]

He said that when he told Sean Og he never had the same relationship with him.

All his teammates came out and support him, Corcoran and Sean Og especially, fair play to them as well. All legends.

Why did he say his friendship with Sean Og has not been the same since he told him then?

[Kerry Mike]

And in another development, the Cork public better known as The Langers have again lined the streets of their real capital in a show of suport for the Cork hurlers.



Meanwhile the new Cork Jerseys has been launched for 2010

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2nd Jersey



Yerra its all old news now about Donal Og anyway.