Latest news with #BagforLife
The Irish Sun
24-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Irish Sun
‘I'm getting the old Kevin back' reveals openly gay GAA star as he hails All-Ireland winner's gesture after coming out
KEVIN PENROSE was four days into his self-imposed isolation in a Thailand hotel room when he realised something had to give. For the better part of the previous decade, the 31-year-old had been locked in an internal struggle, striving to find his place in a confusing world. Advertisement 4 Kevin Penrose spoke about his experience coming out as gay Credit: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile 4 Kevin alongside Armagh footballer Mark Shields, referee David Gough, camogie player Hannah Looney, Belong To CEO Moninne Griffith and Musgrave's Maighread Cremin officially launch SuperValu's new limited-edition Pride themed Bag for Life Credit: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile In 2022, following the Covid-19 It culminated in a FaceTime call with his mum, during which the Aghyaran Saint Davogs clubman finally came out as gay. While now one of the Advertisement He explained to SunSport: "I think the first moment was probably like my later teens, maybe like 17/18 years old. "It's already a time where you're trying to figure out yourself and where you want to go - if you want to go to college or go work or what you want to do with your life. "Ever since I came out, I think everything else in my life just sort of fell into place. "If you asked me three years ago if I'd be on the phone talking to yourself about my experience and how open and so freely about it, I would have called you mad!" Already a vulnerable place to be, a teenage Penrose's situation was not made any easier by growing up in a sporting arena. Advertisement He comes from fine stock, with his brother Martin having won Sam Maguire with While he did his GCSE exams in a mixed school, he moved to an all-boys' school for his A-levels. Tomas O'Se calls out GAA's mid-season rule change but fellow Sunday Game pundit disagrees It meant being surrounded by fellow teenage boys, some of whom would off-handedly use sensitive terms and slurs - less out of malice and more out of ignorance as to their impact. Penrose admitted: "You're trying to make new friends. You're starting fresh, essentially, and you do want to start off on the right foot to fit in. "That sort of resonated over to my club football, as well, like trying to break into the senior football team at the same time. Advertisement "Once you're not making it in there as well you're sort of, 'okay I'm not a good footballer anymore.' "Everyone's trying to get ahead and stand out and be the best in the room and if there's terms thrown around, and even it might be seen as banter to them, to me I got to the point where I actually took offence to that. "You're just thinking, 'okay I can't act or talk or I have to partake in this behaviour to sort of fit in so I don't draw attention to myself'. "If I react to it then they're gonna call me gay." ON HIS TRAVELS It wasn't until he went travelling that Penrose began to process the many questions he faced concerning his sexuality. Advertisement He went to In the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, Kevin set off for Asia, admitting that he was trying to escape from his mental anguish. He added: "I used travel as a way to sort of run away and I thought the feelings will go away because I'm travelling. "I'm not in those environments any more and I'm away from Gaelic football. "I was still feeling all those feelings and bottling it up with myself just in a different environment, if it was in Liverpool or in America or in Asia. Advertisement "I still just assumed it's the football environment that's making me feel this way but, in reality, it's myself. "The feelings and everything just kept following me around until I got to Asia and just got to a point where I was like something's got to give." "A lot of people would still be hesitant to talk about my sexuality. Not that they don't want to, they just don't know how to go about it or they just don't feel comfortable yet talking about it." Penrose is a content creator and regularly documents his extensive travels. Even now, telling his story over the phone, he is back in Meath having spent a couple of days in Mayo, Connemara, and But four months into his Asian expedition, the motivation dwindled as he was staying in a hostel in Phuket, Advertisement Penrose called his mum under the guise of a general catch-up but with the ultimate intention of telling her what he had always known but was afraid to admit. He likened the reaction, which he had catastrophised in his own head, to being typically Irish in the best way. Penrose revealed: "I was still like shooting my content and trying to make posts online and the love for that wasn't really there anymore. "I remember the hotel room very specifically; it was just a dark hotel room with a tiny window and, to me, it was like, 'okay is this my rock bottom.' "I didn't leave that room for about four or five days, just me and my thoughts. Advertisement "It was one of them conversations where you kept asking silly questions just to keep the conversation going as long as possible. "I know my mum would be sensing something's wrong or something's not right if he's staying on the phone for this long "It just got to the point where I told her and it was just so normalized and everything I thought would go wrong didn't happen and it was just such a normal Irish response. "With dad, as well, it was like, 'all right very good, well done. How's the weather over there?'" 4 Ronan McNamee encouraged Kevin Penrose to return to gaelic football Credit: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile Advertisement With that weight off his shoulders, Penrose told his extended family, and then the world via When he came home to While he considered a return to gaelic football, Penrose was nervous to take the plunge, unsure as to how he would be received. That was until Ronan McNamee - a fellow Aghyaran clubman who is an All-Ireland champion, three-time Ulster winner, and former All-Star - reached out to his fellow Tyrone native. Thanks to his words of encouragement, Penrose returned to club football and still plays for Aghyaran to this day. Advertisement Kevin said: "We've grown up together in the same school, he's a couple of years older than me but we're always around the same social circles. "We played football together growing up and I'm really good friends with his wife Clara. "Ronan was just the one that was sort of, 'oh, you'll come back to football' sort of thing. "It made me realise that my club doesn't have a problem with that sort of thing. "A lot of people would still be hesitant to talk about my sexuality. Not that they don't want to, they just don't know how to go about it or they just don't feel comfortable yet talking about it. Advertisement "I think having the likes of Ronan, a top senior footballer within our club and county at the time, it speaks volumes that he's willing to have the conversations." 'AUTHENTIC SELF' Penrose has relived all of the above repeatedly over the three years since he came out. Earlier this year, he explained the process on an episode of the BBC's GAA Social podcast. He has been doing so again over the last week in conjunction Pride Month and with the launch of SuperValu's new limited-edition Pride themed Bag for Life. Earlier this month, he took part in the Gaelic Players' Association Pride brunch alongside Conor Meyler and Mark Shields, the latter of whom is also gay. Advertisement It is a story that he finds easier and more enjoyable to tell now, while he has been an active LGBTQ+ rights advocate. And he is hopeful that the GAA is in a better position for members of the LGBTQ+ community. He said: "I'm sort of getting the old Kevin back and a better version of myself and I really am just everyday being my authentic self. "I feel like my story is no longer my story in a sense. I feel like it's someone else's story now that they can take something from it. "Thinking back to whenever I was going through all those feelings at that time, I didn't really see any footballer who has gone through the same thing as me. Advertisement "You had the likes of Donal Og Cusack who come out and it was highlighted but sort of forgotten about in a sense and you think back that was such a long time ago. "Even the likes of Mark Shields, for example, who had recently just spoken about his experiences playing for Armagh and how well they have welcomed him in. "If my club can do it and if Armagh can do it, then why can't this be replicated throughout all of Ireland and throughout all the county teams. "With the GAA and their motto 'where we all belong', I think it's there's no better time to really push it." SuperValu's limited edition rainbow tote is designed to be carried with pride and is available to purchase for €3. Profits from the sale of the bags will go to Belong To, the national LGBTQ+ youth organisation. 4 Martin Penrose, brother of Kevin Penrose, won an All-Ireland with Tyrone Credit: Michael Cullen / SPORTSFILE Advertisement
Irish Daily Mirror
22-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Daily Mirror
Gay GAA star admits nerves at football return after 'coming out' on podcast
Gay football star Kevin Penrose has opened up about his nerves returning to the sport after launching his podcast. The Tyrone player admitted he felt like he had to 'come out' all over again when he did his GAA Social podcast earlier this year. Kevin had told his family, friends and team-mates in 2022. He said of going back to playing: 'I remember the first match back… I thought, OK, the majority of these lads have most likely listened to this podcast in the past couple of weeks and I know they know. 'So I felt nervous walking across the pitch and in the changing rooms, you get that bit of paranoia. 'But everything was grand. You meet different lads at the changing room doors, they'd shake your hand and say well done. 'It brings you back, you just don't know what to expect.' Since launching his own podcast, the GAA Social, the travel influencer, 31, said it has helped many people feel comfortable with their sexuality. He added: 'Even to this day... like the podcast was how many months ago. 'I came out three years ago, but the podcast felt like I was coming out again but to a much larger audience and really honing in on that GAA demographic, which is teenagers to 60 plus year olds. 'People even come up to me in person and shake my hand…it's hard to know what to say to them in those moments because every journey is different but I'm glad they're finding some sort of comfort in it that they can see there is so much goodness and joy on the other side. 'I was guilty of it myself. I keep thinking that everything would go wrong in my life and you never stop to think that everything could go right so I'm glad that people have taken something from it.' But he said he found it hard reading the negative comments about his sexuality. He added: 'It was more like on Facebook. The comments were completely different to what I'd see on Instagram. 'Again, Facebook is a different demographic and they're older. 'I think people were just saying again, 'Why is this guy making a song and dance about coming out?' Pride month for example, like asking 'why do we need Pride month?' You're sort of answering your own question with your ignorance because this is exactly why we need it. 'I've been very lucky I haven't experienced anything negative. 'The likes of people on Facebook probably didn't even listen to the podcast, they just see the headline.' Kevin was speaking at the launch of SuperValu's new limited-edition Pride themed Bag for Life. Available this month in SuperValu stores across the country, the bold and bright rainbow tote is set to be the must-have bag of the summer and is available to purchase for €3. Profits will go to Belong To – LGBTQ+ Youth Ireland, the national LGBTQ+ youth organisation. Kevin said: 'I am delighted to team up with SuperValu for this important campaign supporting the incredible work of Belong To. As someone who has been through the journey of coming out within the GAA community, I'm incredibly passionate about allyship, and inclusion both on and off the pitch. 'By buying one of these bags and 'Carrying it with Pride', you are sending a powerful message that no matter who you are, you belong. 'I hope a campaign like this not only gives people the courage to be themselves but also reminds everyone to stand up and be proud allies for the LGBTQ+ community.'
RTÉ News
21-06-2025
- Entertainment
- RTÉ News
Kevin Penrose now thriving in the GAA world and beyond after coming out as gay
Kevin Penrose (29) is a content creator, a footballer and an openly gay man. He plays for his childhood club Aghyaran in Tyrone, despite now living in Meath. When asked why he doesn't make his life easier and transfer somewhere nearby, Penrose stated: "It keeps me in the loop with everyone back home. I always get the question would I not just transfer to a club down near here, and I'm just like 'no I can't do it'". Speaking at the launch of SuperValu's new limited edition Pride themed Bag for Life, he continued: "I feel like I owe it to myself, my younger self to see it through now for the next coupe of years till retirement. The lads on the team, these are the people I grew up with." When he dropped out of sport after moving abroad for university he lost connection with his club but now that he's back, he's landed on his feet. "You walk into that changing room or on to that pitch with your head held high and you know that you're walking into a group of lads who fully support you for yourself," he added. "I need to stand out here, to fit in to be liked" Penrose grew up playing football, but struggled during his teenage years with his identity and sexuality. Without a role model to look up to he became confused and anxious blaming football for these negative thoughts. "Growing up for myself, I didn't have a role model who I saw myself in within that GAA culture and community and I think that's the reason I didn't know how to navigate that time in my life." The environment in the changing rooms and on the pitch led Penrose to think that he couldn't be himself "I need to stand out here, to fit in to be liked," he remarked. "You hear the words being thrown around the changing room or on the pitch and it sort of makes you go back into yourself and for me it could be, in the corridor or the changing room thinking okay I can't act this way or talk about this or I have to get involved in this 'banter' per say to fit in." Penrose's conflicting thoughts lead to a mental block on the pitch and resulted in him feeling he couldn't reach his potential. When the opportunity to travel arose he took it so he could escape the feelings he was having on the pitch. "I associated Gaelic football and that environment with how I was feeling at that time, of being scared, not wanting to come out, just a build-up of thoughts in my mind of everything that could go wrong." He soon realised however, the anxious confusing thoughts he was having was nothing to do with Gaelic football and everything to do with who he was deep down. "I began realising that Gaelic football wasn't the problem; it was myself and coming to terms with the fact I was gay." Three years ago when Penrose came out to his family and friends he was nervous about what his teammates would think. Those fears were soon set aside when Tyrone county player Ronan McNamee (below) reached out to him. "To have a senior county player come and have those talks with you, it's encouraging, it's setting an example if your ally and advocate is Ronan McNamee. You're off to a great start. He's willing to take up that role and have that difficult conversation that someone mightn't have the confidence to do - having him nudge me slightly after a few conversations, just reassuring me that no one is going to judge me, that I'm very welcome here makes coming back to football that bit easier." Since his return, Penrose has noticed a culture shift amongst his team-mates, coaches and support staff. "Everyone's just there to play football," is now the positive summation. The environment is one where he can embrace who he truly is and instead of worry about what others think of him, he's able to put all all his focus into the sport, where he's found the love again and he's making a real impact. Another place he's making a real impact is as a role model and advocate for the LGBTQ+ community within the GAA. Penrose has been open about his own experience growing up in the GAA as a closeted gay teenager. "Talking about it so openly and freely can really inspire and encourage other people even if it's somebody struggling with their sexuality, or if it's a football manager really wanting to get involved but not knowing how, you know it's going to help a lot of people I think." When asked about how the GAA can become a better ally to the community, he stated: "It comes back to ourselves within the changing rooms, the managers, the backroom, the volunteers. I think it starts with that and then that's the ripple effect to show if one club can do it why can't every other club do it for everyone else." He encourages people to be curious, educate themselves and spread awareness. "Use the resources online, BelongTo has so much information on there on allyship, on how to have a normal conversation, it doesn't have to be about being gay, just how's it going and that lays the ground work to have those deeper meaningful conversations down the line. "Being open and transparent, if someone says something unintentional in the corridor without knowing its harmful, I need to be comfortable enough to call them out."
The Courier
30-05-2025
- The Courier
Bizarre claims of Perthshire tea blagger Thomas Robinson – bomb disposal, surviving deadly snake bites and inventing Bag for Life
It was not just the whirlwind success of Thomas Robinson's Scottish tea plantation that prosecutors found hard to swallow. There were many aspects of the 55-year-old's personal life and Forrest Gump-esque career that were difficult to believe – and even tougher to fact-check. 'I enjoy telling people that I was one of the inventors of the Bag For Life,' he said. 'They don't believe it. Then when they go away and Google it, they come back with a different impression of me.' Robinson, who was this week convicted of a £550k fake Scottish tea fraud, claimed he was part of a team of three people who produced the now ubiquitous shopping carrier for Waitrose in the late 1990s. There is no evidence to back up his claim. Investigators found no connection between the Bag for Life and Thomas Robinson. Or Thomas O'Brien. Or Tam O'Braan. So who is the man behind the Perthshire grown brew that was too good to be true? Taking the witness stand towards the end of his trial, Robinson was asked to declare his name. 'Thomas James O'Brien,' he said. Born Thomas Robinson in Greenwich, London in 1970, he said he went to an Irish primary school in County Down. But he later said by the age of eight he was educated in London. He said he achieved a qualification in food technology from a college in London's Elephant and Castle in the late 1980s. 'It was the same college where Charlie Chaplin and Michael Caine went,' he told jurors. Robinson denied he had ever told anyone he was a member of the British armed forces, but said he was part of the 'Irish Defence Force' for a year in the late 1990s. He served on the Irish border but also went to 'various overseas locations' to guard embassies. When pressed on how a London-born man with a UK passport would be in the Irish army, he told the court: 'One can have dual nationality.' Asked by fiscal depute Joanne Ritchie what kind of discharge he received from the army, Robinson replied: 'Regular.' He insisted he could not divulge any details of his army career. The court heard how he told Jamie Russell of the Wee Tea Company he saw a soldier die in combat. Robinson said his former business associate was confused and he had in fact told him he had seen a man in a Hearts top being killed in a road accident in Thailand. The court heard he had also bragged about being involved in bomb disposal operations and told others he was a military chef. 'You went as far as to make up these elaborate lies so you appeared to be a man of integrity,' Ms Ritchie told him. 'You wanted to appear as someone who people trust.' Around the same time he was supposedly in the army, he claimed to be studying plastics at the Athlone Institute of Technology in Ireland for 'a year and a bit'. Meanwhile, he was enjoying a career as a professional rugby player. He told the court he played 'to a high standard' at several clubs including Blackheath and Liverpool Stanley. He was so good at rugby, he even had a coaching career, he said. At some point, he also studied Gaelic in Kilkenny. But all evidence of his head-spinning achievements during the 1990s were lost in a flood, he said. All of his qualifications, rugby coaching certificates and paperwork from his army days are now a 'pile of mush' in a water-logged part of an outhouse in Dalreoch. Robinson then claimed to work in the flour and cereal industry, before moving into plastics, where he supposedly developed the Bag For Life. By April 2010 when he married partner Grace Wallace in their then-home city of Edinburgh, he had changed his name to Thomas O'Brien. During his tea plantation days he told people – including the press – his wife was a lawyer but in court he said she worked for the office of national statistics. Their marriage certificate reveals Robinson was a chemical engineer, also noting his father James Robinson was a colonel in the Royal Artillery. Asked how he got a job as a chemical engineer with no chemistry qualifications, he said he studied the subject at Napier University – but did not graduate. At some point, he somehow managed to live on a canoe in the Amazon for four years where he was bitten by a deadly spider, as he told Country Life in 2017. In November 2010, his company Thomas James Consultants Ltd – set up to protect his 'intellectual property' – received a £20,469 grant from the European Development Fund. The grant was to develop and test degradable plastics, which became crucial to his tea-growing business in Perthshire. Robinson became director of a company called EconVerte which carried out crop trials and experiments. He told the court his work secured him a contract with President Barrack Obama's administration to carry out maize trials in a dustbowl. Where was this contract now? The same bag of mush in his basement. He resigned from EconVerte in 2012, the year he moved with his family to Dalreoch Farm, Amulree. According to Companies House records, the Wee Tea Plantation was incorporated in August 2014. Sole shareholder Robinson said he had earlier travelled to the Himalayas to see for himself how to grow tea in harsh conditions. There, he was struck by the revelation that quality tea could be grown in Scotland. 'I spoke to an elder there and he said he had always wondered why we didn't do it in Scotland,' he said. 'We have the right conditions, the hills and the water.' He shared his idea with his friend Jamie Russell, who he had met at his Bread Street cafe in Edinburgh around 2008. Robinson told the trial he was a near-daily customer at the coffee shop and the pair bonded over their love of rugby. At the cafe, he also met Derek Walker, another regular customer, as well as Lindsay Deuchars who was an employee. Mr Russell and Mr Walker established the Wee Tea Company at an industrial unit in Dunfermline in 2012. A year or two later, Robinson made a pitch to the fledgling business owners. 'I told Jamie what I was doing,' he said. 'I told him I thought I had worked out how to grow tea in Scotland.' The trio gathered for a meeting in a freezing potting shed in Dalreoch, where Robinson explained his big secret – a 'unique' polymer sheeting that better retained moisture in the soil and prevented crops from being smothered by weeds. Robinson said the plastic sheeting allowed his plants to grow at a much faster rate than normal. He described the sheeting as 'known technology' but used in an innovative way, comparing himself to Steve Jobs inventing the iPhone. Prosecutors said it looked like a bin liner. His role, he said, was to attract larger retailers while supplying Mr Russell with wet tea leaves grown at Amulree. It was decided Robinson would became Tam O'Braan 'for press purposes'. He named himself after the river that runs through his plantation. The plan was to aim for the higher end of the tea market. While they claimed the Dorchester, Balmoral and Fortnum and Mason among their stockists, Robinson had further lofty targets including Harrods and the Savoy. One of the tricks he used to secure sales was to tell people his produce was a favourite of the Queen. When pressed on this, he said he had at some point received a call from a member of staff at Buckingham Palace who told him how much Her Majesty had enjoyed his tea while visiting the Dorchester. Robinson's Wee Tea Plantation was dissolved in October 2019, around the time the Food Standards Scotland probe was getting into full swing. Since, Robinson said he has worked for an environmental company in Birmingham and driven a school bus for Stagecoach during the Covid lockdown. He most recently secured a job as a senior chef at the plush Taymouth Castle, near Kenmore. He told jurors his job had been kept open for him after an industrial accident in 2023, which left him with cognitive and memory issues. When asked what happened, he said: 'I tripped over an electrical wire and fell into the basement of a castle.' Taymouth Castle declined to comment on the alleged incident, which is understood to have happened without witnesses and was not caught on CCTV. During his evidence, Robinson apologised for some unusual mannerisms such as taking deep breaths before reading printed words. 'I know it can look a bit strange,' he said. 'I'm better with pictures.' When the jury were out of the room, he appeared in discomfort or pain. Concerned, Sheriff Keith O'Mahony told Robinson he was welcome to sit and give his evidence, instead of stand. 'I just want to come across as normal as possible,' Robinson replied.
