A three-times All-Ireland sporting hero has stunned his countrymen by announcing that he is gay. Dónal Óg Cusack, 32, a leading exponent of the ancient and quicksilver game of hurling, revealed it in his autobiograpy Come What May.

Recalling his confusion as a teenager he writes: “I tried to go out with women to make sure, to see what kind of feeling it gave me. I went out with nice women and good women, but sure, I still knew. I wanted something else. I get more out of men. I just do.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.”

He is believed to be Europe’s first openly gay elite sportsman.

While stadium terrace and internet chatroom gossip has pointed the finger at many leading sportsmen in recent years, Dónal Óg — as he is known throughout Ireland — has become the first to declare himself openly and happily comfortable with his sexuality.

That such a declaration comes from the ranks of the Gaelic Athletics Association (GAA) makes the Cork legend’s story all the more striking.

Dublin’s Irish Independent said that the sporting body was once seen as “an extension of a conservative Ireland taking directions from the Catholic Church. The notion of a GAA player declaring himself gay just couldn’t exist in that regime.”

Tom Humphries, the Irish Times sports writer, calls hurling “the last difference, the last visible point of distinction in a country that has pimped itself so enthusiastically to the homogenisers, franchisers and corporatisers of the big world. The game is nourished by history and culture and the Irish sense of place.”

Archbishop Croke, the GAA’s first patron, famously wrote in 1884 the association’s “unofficial charter” in which he abjured England’s “effeminate follies”, counting among them cricket, tennis and other “alien” sports.

But in an illustration of how successfully the GAA has adapted itself to the dramatic changes which have swept Irish society, reaction to Dónal Óg confession has been generally positive.

Sean Kelly, a former GAA president and now an MEP, said Dónal Óg was “a very strong character, very upright and open ... I wish him the best. Ireland is a much more tolerant society today, we are definitely moving on.” Nevertheless, the radio programme’s presenter admitted that “we are getting a lot of anti-homosexual texts”.

Extracts from his autobiography are being serialised in the Irish Daily Mail. By his own admission, however, Dónal Óg admitted that he has been the subject of homophobic attacks. In 2006 he flew back from South Africa when his sister Treasa rang him from home to say rumours were circulating that he was gay.

While he suspected his mother always knew, telling his father was the hardest part. “Now my father is a man who would fight for his family but he’s 63 years of age. He’s a crane driver. Building sites can be cruel, hard places, he didn’t need this,” he said. “There was confusion in every line of his face. ’They all have square jaws,' he said at one point. ’But you don’t. You’re into hurling.’ “ He also tells of how, during a championship away match against rivals Tipperary a spectator used a megaphone to lead an abusive chant. His mother no longer attends matches as a result.

Shane McGrath, who writes about Gaelic Games for the Irish Daily Mail, said:”In national terms this is huge. Hurling is bigger than politics, music, everything. Its hold on rural Ireland is supreme. The GAA has been the greatest cultural force in Ireland since the state’s foundation. While it was incredibly brave of Dónal Óg to do this, it also reinforces the GAA’s ability to move with the times.”