Byline: AOIFE FINNERAN

By AOIFE FINNERAN COMEDIAN Eleanor Tiernan has revealed hiding her sexuality was like playing "whack-a-mole".

The TV star, who this week revealed she is gay, said she had spent two decades trying to find the confidence to come out of the closet.

But, having shared the news with her family and friends in recent months, she said she now feels "more grown up", "more alert", and "braver".

She explained: "I think I can pay better attention to the world now that I haven't got this whack-a-mole thing inside of me which I have to just keep trying to shut up which is kind of what being in the closet is like.

"What I've been feeling is like, you know in your laptop you keep getting asked to download an upgrade and you're like: 'f**k off with the upgrade'.

"That was what being in the closet was like, coming out was the upgrade and I was like: 'No, I don't want to do it. I'm fine, the old system works really well.'" She added: "When you have that going on, a lot of it's unconscious. You put an enormous amount of energy, emotional energy, intellectual energy and physical energy into protecting a certain secret that you have. You're trying to protect yourself by doing that, but ultimately it's like putting a weight on a structure...