Ó hAilpín: Cusack revelations a ‘watershed in Irish history’

Cork GAA star Seán Óg Ó hAilpín has described his team-mate Donal Óg Cusack’s revelations about his sexuality as a "watershed in Irish history" — and revealed that he has been racially abused himself on the field of play.

Cusack’s autobiography describes homophobic chanting about the Cork ‘keeper by Tipperary supporters and racial chants directed at Ó hAilpín by Kilkenny supporters.

Yesterday Ó hAilpín compared the anti-racism regime in Australia with that in Ireland.

"The reason Donal Óg and I have a tight bond is because we’ve gone through the same thing on the field," he said.

"Because of my background and his situation we’ve gone through the same pain on the field.

"It’s happened in the past and it’ll happen again.

"If you use racial abuse against an aboriginal player in Australian Rules you’ll be suspended, for instance.

"That’s viewed more seriously than kicking a guy in the head, but it isn’t policed as tightly in the GAA.

"I’m not going on a big campaign here about it — I’ve been involved in some anti-racism campaigns in the past, like Give Racism the Red Card, and no matter what you try to do, you will have ignorant people in society.

"Myself and Donal Óg are lucky in that we’re strong enough to deal with it, all you can hope is that decent people near the ones doing this chanting will tell them to stop."