Dónal Óg Cusack
Donal Óg Cusack was born in Cloyne, County Cork in 1977. He was born into a family that had a strong link to Cork's hurling glories of the past. One of his close relations was Christy Ring, regarded by many as the greatest hurler of all-time, and a holder of a record eight All-Ireland medals with Cork.
Cusack was educated at the local national school in Cloyne village and later attended nearby Midleton CBS. It was here that his hurling talents first came to the fore. Cusack quickly became a key fixture on the school's senior hurling team and in 1994 his team lost the Dr. Harty Cup (Munster Senior Colleges' Hurling Championship) final. The next year he repeated his Leaving Certificate and it paid off as he landed a Dr. Harty Cup title, making up for the previous year's loss. Following his secondary schooling Cusack began a career as an electrician.
On 18 October 2009, Cusack revealed to the Irish Mail on Sunday that he is gay. He released his autobiography, Come What May, in October 2009. He writes:
"I get more out of men. Always have. I know I am different but just in this way. Whatever you may feel about me or who I am, I've always been at peace with it."
Come What May won the Williamhill.com Irish Sports Book of the Year for 2009. Since then Cusack has been noted as one of the few "openly gay sporting heroes" both at home and abroad.
(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donal_Og...)
“I believe hurling is the best of us, one of the greatest and most beautiful expressions of what we can be. For me that is the perspective that death and loss cast on the game. If you could live again you would hurl more, because that is living. You'd pay less attention to the rows and the mortgage and the car and all the daily drudge. Hurling is our song and our verse, and when I walk in the graveyard in Cloyne and look at the familiar names on the headstones I know that their ownders would want us to hurl with more joy and more exuberance and more (as Frank Murphy used to tell us) abandon than before, because life is shorter than the second half of a tournament game that starts at dusk.”