The nine-time All-Ireland winner has decided to go public on her sexuality in a broadcast with Cork hurling legend Donal Óg Cusack.

Cusack addresses the issue of being gay in 21st century Ireland and says Mulcahy is the real star of the documentary, which airs on Monday.

“When I was younger, I didn’t want to be gay,” she says in the programme.

The RTE Guide yesterday said of the broadcast: “Some of the most affecting images in the documentary are of Valerie and her partner kissing and holding hands.

“Similarly uplifting is the story of young Cork hurler Chris McCarthy, who got in touch with the production during the making of the documentary.”

Mulcahy is the first high-profile female GAA player to come out publicly, and says she has done so to help other gay people feel comfortable.

A secondary school teacher in Cork City, Mulcahy is hugely admired by her peers and has long been out to her team-mates. She joins one of Ireland’s most capped hockey players, Nikki Symmons, in becoming an openly gay female athlete in Ireland.

In October, Symmons spoke about her sexuality on RTE’s Second Captains sports show, alongside Cusack and former Irish rugby legend Shane Horgan.

Last February, former England women’s soccer captain Casey Stoney of Arsenal became one of the first high-profile female athletes to come out in England.

READ MORE: The winners who make sexuality in sport more normal