Donal Óg has high hopes for gay marriage

Hurling star Donal Óg Cusack hopes the new pope will “walk the walk” on the issue of gay marriage.

The Cork goalkeeper, who revealed he was gay in 2009, wants Pope Francis to let him get married in his parish church in Cloyne, Co Cork, because it is so much part of his local community.

Donal Óg, 35, wrote on a popular Irish-American website that his mother and her friends, who cleaned the local church on their hands and knees, were delighted with the inauguration of Pope Francis.