Valerie Mulcahy is an Irish footballer. As a

ladies' Gaelic football Ladies' Gaelic football ( ga, Peil Ghaelach na mBan) is a women's team sport. It is the women's equivalent of Gaelic football. Ladies' football is organised by the Ladies' Gaelic Football Association. Two teams of 15 players kick or hand-pass a ...

er, she played at senior level for

Cork Cork or CORK may refer to: Materials * Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product ** Cork (plug), a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container ***Wine cork Places Ireland * Cork (city) ** Metropolitan Cork, also known as G ...

, winning ten

All-Ireland All-Ireland (sometimes All-Island) refers to all of Ireland, as opposed to the separate jurisdictions of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. "All-Ireland" is most frequently used to refer to sporting teams or events for the entire islan ...

titles and nine

Ladies' National Football League The Ladies' National Football League is an annual inter-county ladies' Gaelic football tournament, secondary to the All-Ireland Senior Ladies' Football Championship. It is competed for annually by the county teams of Ireland. National League rol ...

titles between 2005 and 2015. She was also an All Star on six occasions. As a

women's association football Women's association football, more commonly known simply as women's football or women's soccer, is a team sport of association football when played by women only. It is played at the professional level in multiple countries and 176 national te ...

player, she represented

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

at the

2003 Summer Universiade The 2003 Summer Universiade, also known as the XXII Summer Universiade, took place in Daegu, South Korea. Emblem * The alphabet letter "U" and five stars, which is FISU's emblem, make up the basis of the emblem for the Daegu Universiade. * It sym ...

and played for

Cork City Cork ( , from , meaning 'marsh') is the second largest city in Ireland and third largest city by population on the island of Ireland. It is located in the south-west of Ireland, in the province of Munster. Following an extension to the city' ...

in the Women's National League. In 2015 Mulcahy helped launch the Women's Gaelic Players' Association. In the same year she also came out as

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

Gaelic football

Between 2004 and 2015 Mulcahy played at senior level for the

Cork county ladies' football team The Cork county ladies' football team represents Cork GAA in ladies' Gaelic football. The team competes in inter-county competitions such as the All-Ireland Senior Ladies' Football Championship, the Munster Senior Ladies' Football Championship an ...

, representing her county in competitions such as the

All-Ireland Senior Ladies' Football Championship The All-Ireland Senior Ladies' Football Championship is the premier inter-county competition in the game of ladies' Gaelic football in Ireland. The series of games are organised by the Ladies' Gaelic Football Association and are played during the ...

, the Munster Senior Ladies' Football Championship and the

. Together with

Rena Buckley Rena Buckley is an Irish sportswoman who played at senior level for both the Cork county ladies' football team and the Cork county camogie team. She has also represented Munster in the Gael Linn Cup and Ireland at international rules. Between ...

, Nollaig Cleary,

Briege Corkery Briege Corkery (born 16 December 1986) in Cork is a camogie player, ladies' Gaelic footballer, and winner of seven All Ireland Senior Camogie medals in 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2014, 2015 and 2018 as well as the winner of eleven All Ireland Se ...

Juliet Murphy Juliet Murphy (born 1980 in Donoughmore, County Cork) is an Irish sportsperson. She plays ladies' Gaelic football with her local club Donoughmore and has been a member of the Cork county ladies' football team at senior level since 1995. Murphy ...

, Mary O'Connor and

Angela Walsh Angela Walsh (born 1986) is an Irish sportsperson. She plays ladies' Gaelic football with her local club Inch Rovers and has been a member of the senior Cork county ladies' football team since 2004. Walsh captained Cork to a fourth consecutiv ...

, she was a prominent member of the Cork team, winning ten All-Ireland medals, ten Munster titles and nine League titles. Between

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

and

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

, Mulcahy played in ten All-Ireland finals, scoring 7–38. She scored in every final she played in except in

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

. She scored two goals in

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

and scored a hat-trick of goals in

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

. She was the top scorer in the All-Ireland final in 2005, 2007, 2008,

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

and 2015. In January 2015 Mulcahy helped launch the Women's Gaelic Players Association and subsequently served on the association's executive team.

Association football

While attending the

University of Limerick The University of Limerick (UL) ( ga, Ollscoil Luimnigh) is a Public university, public research university institution in Limerick, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Founded in 1972 as the National Institute for Higher Education, Limerick, it beca ...

, Mulcahy was chosen to represent

at the

. During the inaugural 2011–12 Women's National League season, Mulcahy also played for Cork Women's F.C. and scored the winning goal in their first league victory. Mulcahy came on as a substitute to score an 86th-minute goal in a 1–0 win against

Shamrock Rovers Shamrock Rovers Football Club ( ga, Cumann Peile Ruagairí na Seamróige) is an Irish association football club based in Tallaght, South Dublin. The club's senior team competes in the League of Ireland Premier Division and it is the most su ...

Tallaght Stadium Tallaght Stadium ( ga, Staid Thamhlachta) is an association football stadium in the Republic of Ireland based in Tallaght, South Dublin. The club Shamrock Rovers originally announced details of the stadium in July, 1996. The stadium is now ow ...

. After retiring as an inter-county

Ladies' Gaelic football Ladies' Gaelic football ( ga, Peil Ghaelach na mBan) is a women's team sport. It is the women's equivalent of Gaelic football. Ladies' football is organised by the Ladies' Gaelic Football Association. Two teams of 15 players kick or hand-pass a ...

er in 2015, Mulcahy subsequently joined

for the

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

season.

Personal life

In January 2015 Mulcahy came out as

lesbian A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...

. She announced the decision to coincide with her taking part in the

Donal Óg Cusack Donald is a masculine given name derived from the Gaelic name ''Dòmhnall''.. This comes from the Proto-Celtic *''Dumno-ualos'' ("world-ruler" or "world-wielder"). The final -''d'' in ''Donald'' is partly derived from a misinterpretation of the ...

RTÉ (RTÉ) (; Irish language, Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the Public broadcaster, national broadcaster of Republic of Ireland, Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on RTÉ Television, telev ...

documentary, ''Coming Out of the Curve''. She subsequently campaigned in favour of

same-sex marriage in the Republic of Ireland Same-sex marriage in Ireland has been legal since 16 November 2015. A referendum on 22 May 2015 amended the Constitution of Ireland to provide that marriage is recognised irrespective of the sex of the partners. The measure was signed into la ...

during the 2015 referendum. In June 2015 Mulcahy married Meg Blyth, her partner of six years. Blyth is a choreographer.

Teacher

Mulcahy studied PE and Irish at the

and is a PE and Maths teacher at Gaelcholáiste Mhuire in

Honours

;

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

: 10 *

** 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015: 9 * Munster Senior Ladies' Football Championship ** ???: 10 * RTÉ Sports Team of the Year Award ** 2014 ;Individual *

Ladies' Gaelic football All Stars Awards The Ladies' Gaelic Football All Stars Awards have been hosted annually by the Ladies' Gaelic Football Association since 1980. The All Stars are sponsored by TG4. O'Neills have also helped sponsor the awards. All Stars are awarded to the best Lad ...

** 2004, 2005, 2007, 2012, 2013, 2015: 6

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mulcahy, Valerie 1980s births Living people Cork inter-county ladies' footballers Winners of four All-Ireland medals (ladies' football) Association footballers from County Cork Republic of Ireland women's association footballers Cork City W.F.C. players Women's National League (Ireland) players Alumni of the University of Limerick Irish schoolteachers Irish trade unionists Lesbian sportswomen Irish LGBT sportspeople Irish LGBT rights activists Irish women activists Ladies' Gaelic footballers who switched code Women's association footballers not categorized by position LGBT association football players LGBT Gaelic footballers Women civil rights activists Lesbian trade unionists